Render the Extra Mile
by Nickeltaffy
Summary: In an effort to save Dawn in the Gift episode, Spike takes a few sips of Dawn's blood and flings himself into the portal, thereby closing it. Buffy and Dawn return to their normal lives and guess who shows up 147 days later, a little worse for wear.
1. Chapter 1

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 1

As he wearily walked down the darkened street, the vampire was barely able to focus on what was three feet ahead of him. He knew he was having one of his delusions again. Everything had a peculiar familiarity to it. The images of the street and buildings seemed like jagged sparks of pain in his eyes. He continued on, concentrating on the sound of his feet upon the pavement to survive this caustic ordeal. Old images were brought back to stab him where he was most vulnerable once again. He raised his battered mental shields against another siege of the mental torment. This time, in this place, he was constantly being accosted by flashing visions of people he had known so long ago.

A sudden flash of a particular person caught him unaware and he tripped against the edge of the curb. The smooth cement under his worn and tattered boots seemed so alien to him. He knew that long ago he had walked on this material before however; it was so long ago that it seemed like a half forgotten memory. The modern buildings on this street puzzled him with their glass and cutting edge design as he tried not to look directly at them. They too echoed a time long ago, so he considered them a distraction. He ignored his surroundings, knowing that he had to be on guard. He did not know when the next attack would be launched at him. He fought against the feeling of tiredness as he wrapped his arms around him, bringing the ratty torn edges of his dusty coat together for a small comfort. A car drove by startling him; the sound of traffic seemed strange and hurt his ears. He momentarily flinched when an abrupt sound of laughter echoed out of one of the buildings.

He continued to walk on, with his head down, not allowing the appearance of sidewalk, pavement or grass deter him from his path. He entered the downtown area where the nightclubs and restaurants were located and busily active. There was a conglomeration of people were milling about in flashy clothes and exotic perfumes. They bumped against him, jostling him while they chattered and giggled. He did not say a word as some of them addressed him, making a joke about him at his expense. He did not react to the outrageous insults, a hand waving in front of his face or an aggressive shove against his shoulder. As he unwaveringly moved through the crowds, they lost interest in him and went back to their own good time.

By the time, the moon began to dip toward the horizon; he began to move into less crowded areas of town. For some reason, he began to smell the sunrise. It was an old sensation, something that flared up in his vampire nature. He had not smelled a sunrise in decades. He had experienced hallucinations before, and it never served him to become lost in them. He did not want to believe what his senses were telling him; however, the gut reaction to find a place to escape the sun was relentless. He stopped by a cluttered alley entrance by strip mall. He did not care where he would spend his day. He saw a small area behind a dumpster. It was shaded by the overhand of the building and the dumpster itself would offer him protection from the sun's rays for the rest of the day. He would also benefit from a period of rest. He desperately needed the respite from his constant anxious vigilance, if he dared. He crouched down and backed into the small dark space where he planned to wait for night to fall.

….

"DAWN! If you don't get down here in two minutes, you're going to be late for school." Buffy yelled up the staircase. In response, a door opened and trendy thick heeled shoes made small muffled stomps as they trudged toward the stairs.

"Okay, okay. You don't have to make a federal case out of it. I'm coming." Dawn sighed, rolling her eyes at the unnecessary drama as she came down the stairs.

"In this case, you're lucky to have connections to get it thrown out of court." Buffy said, as she smiled at her sister, the sister she had thought she had lost to Glory a few months prior. She blinked back a few tears she felt welling up when Dawn arrived at the bottom of the stairs. In an unlikely maternal moment, she reached over and smoothed her younger sister's hair. "Okay, you got everything?" she asked.

"Yes." Dawn answered tiredly with a pained expression. She had already had enough of her sister's Mama Bird impression a few weeks ago.

"Are you sure you don't want Xander to drive you?" Buffy looked doubtfully at her younger sister

"Yes, I'm sure. Would you relax? Okay. I'm going to ride with Janice, just like last year." Dawn groaned. She leaned over and picked up her backpack and slung it on her back. "They should be picking me up anytime now. I'm going to wait for them at the curb. AND I don't want to see you peeking out the window."

With that statement, Dawn marched out the front door. Buffy stood there for a moment, staring at the door, fighting the urge to go peek out the window to watch her sister. Finally, getting herself together, she made her way back to the kitchen where Tara was busy making eggs while Willow was leaning against the island watching her.

"Everything go okay?" Willow asked as Buffy came into the kitchen. Willow pushed Buffy's cup of coffee toward her on the counter.

Buffy dramatically stamped petulantly toward the island with her lower lip stuck out.

"About as well as you can with an irritating teenager." Buffy said dispiritedly. "I don't know how single mothers do it."

"Luckily, you're not alone. You have us." Willow said with her winsome smile at Buffy.

…..

The original plan was for Dawn and Janice to leave the middle school campus after second period lunch. Janice had a crush on one of the local lifeguards and since the pools would be closing for the season soon, her window of opportunity to hit on him was coming to a close. Janice knew he had a habit of stopping at this convenience store for some Gatorade before he reported for the afternoon shift at the local public pool. Janice had pleaded with Dawn to go with her and stake out the convenience. That afternoon, Dawn and Janice had been standing in the corner of the convenience store, with their mouths pulling on the straws of the fountain drinks they had purchased. Their eyes were in constant motion, looking for Janice's dream on legs to walk inside the store.

After about thirty minutes, Dawn decided that she had had enough. She told Janice that she would walk back to school. Janice pleaded for her to wait just a little longer, but Dawn knew a lost cause when she saw it. As she left Janice, the lifeguard passed her in the doorway. There was no way that Janice would leave now. Dawn knew that she could just make it to fifth period, if she left just then. Dawn came out of the convenience store and turned right. Without thinking of where her destination was, she turned at the corner and walked past the building. She realized if she had turned left instead of right, she could cut out two minutes off her route back to school. She could see the other street at the other end of the alley. She would just cut through this alley. No big deal. It was the middle of the day. She was only going to be there for less than a minute.

Dawn picked her way around the debris scattered through the alley way. She was a little nervous, so she hurried her steps so nothing would be able to catch her. She could see the other street coming closer and closer. She got the oddest feeling that she wasn't alone. She began to quicken her steps even further. She began to hop over larger pieces that appeared in her path. Catching her toe on the top of a large broken plastic crate, she stumbled forward. She ungainly caught herself before she went down on her front right there in the alley. Bending over at her waist, with her hands braced upon her thighs, she turned slightly to look behind her.

That's when she saw it. Something was shining in the area behind the beaten up dumpster. There in the darkness, a glimmer stood out. How odd she thought. She bent down a little lower and squinted at that area. She stood up quickly and ran out of the alley way to the street. It couldn't be. There was only one person she ever knew with that color hair and he had sacrificed himself for her.

Her hand traveled up to rub her neck as she made her way down the street from that alleyway. If it was him, she had to tell Buffy. If it wasn't, she would have to explain what she was doing here. There would be the whole lecture thing about bad decisions. She would be prohibited from seeing Janice as her friend would be labeled a bad influence. Dawn knew that Buffy's kneejerk reaction would be to tighten the leash a little further and Dawn was already at her wits end with her sister's controlling ways. She had to double check first, before she made any decisions. That meant she had to come back here at dusk. Maybe, she could sneak out of her room after dinner. She could always plead homework. Homework? Really after the first day of class? Who would believe that? Well, thank god, you don't have to pass a written exam to be a Scoobie. It just may work!

….

It was a little after dusk, when Buffy knocked on Dawn's door with a bowl of ice cream in her hands. She had been very impressed with Dawn's determination to start the school year off right. She beamed at Tara and Willow across the table when Dawn made her big announcement about getting to her homework right after dinner. It wasn't until later that the girls were breaking out the ice cream for dessert that Buffy approached Dawn's room to proffer a bowl of Mocha Almond Fudge.

Upon hearing no response, Buffy called out 'Dawn' and knocked again. She then grabbed the doorknob and walked into Dawn's room.

"Hey, Dawn, I thought you would enjoy some…." Buffy said with a smile and then just as suddenly the smile dropped from her face. She realized her sister wasn't in her room and the window was open.

….

Dawn made it back to that alley just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. She picked a spot at the entrance where she could watch what crept out from behind the dumpster with relative safety. She huddled behind an old display case with broken glass and waited.

Forty minutes later, the darkness had firmly settled on the alleyway. There had been no sign of movement from behind the dumpster. Dawn had begun to question her reasoning about this venture. She grew stiff as her muscles ached from being held in place so long, but she dare not move. She wanted – No, she HAD to see if her suspicions were correct. She felt a large calloused hand close on her shoulder as long sharpened nails dug into her shoulder

"What a tasty little morsel we have here." The stringy haired vampire said looking down at her. He had long overgrown bangs that kept falling in his face. He let go of Dawn to push the offending hair off his forehead.

Taken by surprise, Dawn recoiled from the vampire. She scuttled back on her hands and heels until she was pushed back against the brick wall. Taking deep breaths, her eyes roamed the alleyway for a weapon to use against the homely vampire hovering over her. Keeping his yellow eyes trained on his victim, the vampire bent down and slowly began to move toward her. Against her will, Dawn made a slight whimper as she closed her eyes and braced herself for the attack.

In the next moment, there was a cloud of dust showering her. She opened her eyes to see an outline of a figure holding a stake in his hand. She looked at her rescuer with amazement. She knew the outline of the figure very well. Just then, a cloud moved away from the moon, his hair shone brilliantly against the darkness of the alley. There was no doubt in her mind who was standing there before her, as her voice shakily broke the silence.

"Spike?"


	2. Chapter 2

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 2

"Dawn! Dawn!" Buffy called out from Dawn's bedroom window. Her hair bounced around her head as she anxiously looked up and down the street. Finally with a little sound of disgust, she pulled her head back in the window.

"Guys! I am seriously going to wring her neck! I can't believe she would do something so….so adolescent!" Buffy said as she came out into the hallway and down the stair case.

Hearing Buffy's angry outburst, Willow and Tara came toward the base of the stairs, craning their necks to look up the stairs.

"What's going on?" Willow asked. Her face wrinkled in puzzlement as she looked up to the Slayer angrily marching down the stairs.

"Dawn. She snuck out!" Buffy growled as she looked up threateningly at the ceiling. "I can't believe she would do such a thing. She knows full well that she could easily be killed out there. She better not get killed. I want that pleasure myself!"

"Buffy, calm down. Getting upset is not going to help the situation." Tara said in her gentle halting voice as she took a step toward the ranting Slayer. "You know, kids all do a lot of crazy stuff. It is just part of growing up."

"Yeah, you know those crazy kids!" Willow breathlessly interjected, with a half hearted swing of her arm. "Why don't we all go look for her. She didn't go upstairs too long ago, she couldn't have gone too far. I bet you, we'll find her in a few minutes."

"Alright, everybody, grab your coat. Let's go find her!" Buffy commanded. Willow gave a knowing look to Tara as she moved toward the coat rack.

….

Spike's name hung heavy in the air like the sound of a distant church bell between the girl and the vampire in the alley. Holding her breath, Dawn waited for the vampire to respond. Nothing happened for a moment as neither one of them moved. In the next instant, the vampire stood back without making a sound and turned to walk away, methodically shoving the stake into his coat pocket.

Unbelieving, Dawn watched him walked away for a few moments, stunned to see the vampire who had just been standing before her. It was Spike, the vampire who had saved a few months ago and just now, had done so again. Blinking, she shook her head to break the stupor she found herself mired in. The atmosphere in the alley felt heavy as if everything was happening underwater to Dawn. She clumsily got to her feet as she grabbed the edge of the broken the display case as she got up, garnering a small cut on her hand in the process. Standing, she called his name again, hoping it would garner some sign of the Spike she knew. To her disappointment, he did not turn around, but he continued to steadily move away from her.

Breathlessly, she catapulted herself down the alley after the vampire who was steadily walking away from her. She made small grunts as the effort to dodge the obstacle course of debris in her manic path, knocking a knee on a random piece of metal, catching the edge of her sweater on a jagged edge of broken plastic milk crate. Despite the obstacles, she determinedly continued her pursuit of the enigmatic vampire she came across in her path. Gratefully, she finally saw that she had begun to close the distance between her and the retreating vampire when she rammed all five of her toes into a broken cinder block.

"Ow! Buggar!" Dawn yowled at the top of her voice as she felt the pain radiate up her spine.

Suddenly, the blonde vampire stopped. He stood stock still for a moment, then he haltingly turned his head slightly, turning an ear toward her. The tension in his body was evident in the way his head was tucked down as if he was bracing for an attack as he stood there.

Seeing the reaction of the vampire, Dawn grinned and let a small happy sound escape her lips. Ignoring the pain in her foot, she galloped over to where the vampire stood. She pulled up just short of the vampire, almost falling over.

"Spike!" she gleefully proclaimed, waiting for the vampire to react.

The only reaction seen were the vampire's eyes as they scanned the area, not focusing on anything in particular. The vampire slowly turned his head forward and began to trudge forward. Scurrying forward to stop him, Dawn launched herself in his path. She could now look at his face, what she saw disturbed her more than she could imagine.

This was nothing like the Spike she knew. The vampire was filthy, wearing tattered worn clothes and looked to be half starved. Beyond that, this Spike seemed to be so traumatized that he was existing on a solely survival level. There was none of the joie de vivre that Spike usually exuded. The blue eyes that used to sparkle with merriment were now hollow and haunted. They did not focus on anything in particular, but continued to roam the horizon. It broke her heart to see him in such a dejected state.

"Spike?" Dawn pleaded softly as her eyes began to well up.

He did not acknowledge her, only the slight tightening of the jaw was the only indication he heard her. Looking over her head, he stood there for half a second before he started to move forward. Dawn backed up as he came forward. Stumbling over an odd piece of trash, Dawn reached out and grabbed Spike's arm to keep from falling.

At her touch, Spike stopped and stared at the hand on his arm. He seemed to be mesmerized by the feeling of her hand. Dawn straightened up and watched the vampire with fascination. She took another step closer to the vampire.

Spike's eyes traveled from her hand up to her face. For a moment, Dawn could see a glimmer of her old friend in those eyes. Then just as quickly, the vampire's eyes went back to their blank stare. Not wanting her friend to slip away so easily, Dawn moved her hand from his arm to cup his cheek. Spike pulled back his head almost imperceptibly at her touch, before allowing her hand to rest against his cheek. His breathing quickened as he shifted his eyes away from her. Dawn could feel the muscles in his jaw tensing under her hand as he almost indiscernibly worked his mouth. Dawn could tell whatever defense the vampire was using, he was clinging to it with all his might. She ached for her friend as he wrestled with his demons. She hoped that if she could stay there long enough, he would come back to her.

Just then, she saw his nostrils flare, the small bleeding cut on her hand that was cupping his cheek was just a few inches away from his nose. She saw him take a longer deeper sniff, his eyes blinking rapidly as a memory had surfaced from the past in his mind. She was surprised when Spike's quaking hand came up and gently grasped her hand pulling it away from his face. Spike pulled back his head painfully and looked at her small hand like it was something from another world. The blue eyes traveled from her hand to her tear streaked face, losing some of their tortured remoteness as he looked at her.

"Dawn?" Spike said tremulously, hardly able to withstand the hope that she was actually there.

…

Dawn lead the overwhelmed vampire back to the house. Although she wanted to babble excitedly to her old friend, she somehow knew he was not up to it. She knew he required gentleness, so she tried to only inform him of what was presently in front of them. There was a camaraderie in the quietness the two shared. When they got to the end of the walkway at Revello drive, she told him to wait there. Dawn hoped that Buffy was out on patrol and Tara and Willow were asleep. She opened the door, looking around stealthily.

"Buffy? Tara? Willow?" she called out almost hesitantly. Hearing nothing, she bolted upstairs to check the bedrooms. No one was home. Good, she thought.

She quickly went back to Spike who was standing on the sidewalk regarding the neighborhood in a state of winding uncertainty. She came up behind him and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. He still seemed to be surprised by her touch and looked at her with bewildered amazement in his eyes. Beckoning him to follow, she walked back to the house as the traumatized vampire straggled a few steps behind her. Dawn stepped inside, holding the door for Spike. Spike stopped on the front porch just inside of the door threshold, looking over at Dawn with a dazed expectation.

"Come on in, Spike. You're always welcome." Dawn said in a comforting tone.

Spike took a huge breath, as he seemed to go inside himself for a moment. He shakily placed a worn and tattered boot on the threshold and entered the house. He hung back, just inside the door, his eyes betraying an anxiousness as he slowly shifted his weight from one foot to other. Dawn was tempted to reach over to comfort the vampire, but realized that he was just barely keeping himself composed. Any gesture may pitch him over the precipice.

"Come on." Dawn said, casually yet softly as she went back to the kitchen.

Spike nervously followed her a few seconds later. Dawn looked back behind her when she reached the island. She waited until Spike was at the doorway of the kitchen. He seemed to be comfortable keeping his eyes averted, but he did keep his head tilted toward Dawn.

"Um..Sorry, we don't have any blood. We don't entertain that many vampires, you know." Dawn said, looking down. In the next instant, she lifted her head with a huge grin, and volunteered gleefully. "How about hot chocolate?"

Spike did not respond as he kept his eyes trained at the breakfast table. Taking his silence as agreement, Dawn began to pull mugs out of the cabinet. A few minutes later, there were two mugs of hot chocolate sitting on the island.

"Hope you don't mind just the chocolate. We're out of marshmallows." She said as she pushed a mug down to the end of the island. "We can always add lots of sugar to make up for it. Here you go."

Spike moved very slowly over between the island and the stove. He starred down into the mug of hot chocolate without touching the mug. The sight and smell of the hot chocolate seemed to have a hypnotizing effect on him.

Abruptly, the sound of shoes stamping up on the front porch could be heard. Ignoring it, Spike continued to stand there, looking at the mug before him. Taking a deep breath, Dawn looked over at Spike and moved around to the outside of the island.

"Wait here." She whispered to the oblivious vampire.

Buffy opened the door with anger pouring out of every pore of her body. She had left Willow and Tara at the Bronze in case Dawn turned up there. She was just checking the house one more time before she began to canvass the town once more.

"Dawn! Dawn!" Buffy yelled at the top of her voice, clearly irritated.

"I'm right here." Dawn calmly said from the entrance of the kitchen.

"Where have you been? I could just kill you!" Buffy explosively unloaded. "Sneaking out of your room…Do you how dangerous it is to be out at night?"

"I'm fine." Dawn countered, clearly not intimidated.

"You're just lucky! Tell me, where did you go?" Buffy fumed in maternal fury.

"I had something I needed to do." Dawn said cryptically as she backed into the kitchen.

"What? What was so important?" Buffy asked as she followed Dawn back toward the kitchen.

"Buffy, look."


	3. Chapter 3

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 3

Spike stood there in the Summers' kitchen, staring down at the mug sitting before him. It seemed like unreal vision. It had been so long, so long that he had even thought of such a thing like hot chocolate. The mug sat there on the counter in front of him, like a mirage. The heady scent of chocolate and sugar wafted up to his nose, enticing him to take a deeper sniff. He froze, afraid that the slightest wrong movement would make everything disappear like a fairy in an ancient folktale. He was afraid that the mug, Dawn and the house surrounding him would evaporate before him, leaving him bereft in an unfriendly landscape again. If he didn't touch it, maybe he could make this moment last and put off the unhappy reality come crashing in on him again. He stood there, silent and unmoving as a monolith in the desert.

"Spike?" Buffy said softly in amazement, taking a few steps back, her eyes huge and her mouth open in shock.

"See. I found him." Dawn responded in an equally soft voice, looking briefly over to the vampire and back to her sister. Her voice betraying triumph and explanation in the few words she had spoken.

Small noises, small buzzing noises punched their way through the walls of vampire's enforced inertia. He intentionally dismissed them as he remained steadfast in his contemplation of the mug of chocolate before him.

Buffy was unable to move as she took in the beaten and straggly manifestation of the blonde vampire in her kitchen. Blinking, her eyes traveled up from his scuffed and battered boots up to his grubby matted blonde hair, she stared at the specter of the vampire there. It couldn't be she thought. He had disappeared. He had thrown himself into that portal during the battle with Glory. There was no way he could be back.

Dawn moved away from her sister and bending at the waist slowly approached the unmoving vampire on the opposite of the island. She looked up into his face to watch his expression but it remained fixated on the counter. A few feet from him, she placed her hand gently on his bicep as she faintly said his name.

"Spike."

Dawn's voice sought him like a light from a lighthouse on moonless night. He became aware of her voice and dragged his eyes away from the mug. He straightened his neck with a heart breaking deliberateness and slowly turned his head to look at Dawn.

In that moment, Dawn saw her friend recognize her with such inherent sadness that it made her gasp. For a second, she couldn't think, she was so lost in the sorrow in his eyes. She saw his eyes become unfocused and he began to drift away from her again; she tightened her grip on his arm.

"Spike. Look who's here." Dawn said inclining her head toward Buffy. Without touching him further, she took a step closer to him, letting him feel her presence beside him.

He turned his head hesitantly to where she indicated. He involuntarily swallowed when he saw Buffy standing there. Her expression displayed her shock; she was staring at him while she shook her head slightly in disbelief. She looked exactly like remembered her. It was too much. He could not keep his eyes on her without cost to himself. He looked down at the floor while turning his head away in a ragged motion. She was just another delusion he told himself as he averted his eyes. It was better to go back to feeling nothing than deal with the onslaught of emotions she brought up in him.

"Spike!" Buffy said, letting the surprise enter her voice as she took a step toward the island. "How?"

Spike did not respond. He continued to stare away from the Slayer. Buffy seeing no reaction from Spike turned her head to Dawn with a confounded look.

"I don't know." Dawn offered, shaking her head. "I thought I saw him this afternoon. So, this evening, I went to check and it was him."

"Saw him where? At school?" Buffy asked perplexed at where her sister could have seen the vampire during the day.

"No, uh..There's a story that goes behind that; but, let's not get in that right now." Dawn begrudgingly admitted as she walked away from the vampire to place herself between him and Buffy. Coming to a full stop in front of her sister, she added brightly. "The important thing is that Spike's back!"

"Yeah. You're right. I guess we should deal with the vampire standing in our kitchen first." Buffy said slowly, looking over at Spike and then giving a suspicious look to her sister. "Where did you find him?"

"He was over by the Community center" Dawn responded, trying not to give too much away.

"What, just walking around?" Buffy asked, wrinkling her face and dubiously looking over at Spike.

"No, he killed a vampire." Dawn said as she leapt to his defense without thinking.

"How do you know that?" Buffy asked, returning her eyes back to her sister.

"I saw him." Dawn proclaimed, raising her chin.

"Dawn! You were out alone and there were vampires in the area? Do you have any idea of how much danger you were in." Buffy expounded on her little sister.

"I wasn't alone. Spike was with me." slightly insulted at the slight to her intelligence, Dawn responded bitingly.

"He's not the poster boy for mental health right now, if you haven't noticed." Buffy muttered and then fixing her gaze on her sister, asked. "How do you know he would do anything to protect you?"

"Because he killed the vampire that was after me!" Dawn yelled and then realized what she had just said, blurted. "Oops! Forget I said anything!"

If the two had not been so involved in their argument, they would have noticed a corner of Spike's mouth begin to pull up and then just as suddenly disappear.

"DAWN! How many times.." Buffy sputtered as she began to get a wind up on a really good lecture.

"Buffy! Let's get into this later. You can read me the riot act all you want. I just want to help Spike." Dawn pleaded. Looking back at Spike, she turned and leaned toward Buffy and said. "Do you know anywhere we can get some blood this time of night?"

"The butcher shop is closed for the night. Spike will just have to wait until they re-open tomorrow morning." Buffy stated, crossing her arms, indicating she was not interested in pursuing the subject.

"But he's so thin." Dawn whined. She jumped with her next thought. "What about the hospital? They have blood.."

"Dawn, that's for humans. It used for saving lives!" Buffy exclaimed, aghast at her sister's thinking.

"I'm sure they could spare some. We could, at least, ask." Dawn appealed at her whiny best. Thinking for a second, Dawn blurted as she bounced on her toes. "Or how about the blood bank? Oh, I bet they're closed right now too! I think our best bet is to go to the hospital. I bet you, we could swipe some when they're not looking!"

"Oh great. My little sister is planning the great blood heist!" Buffy uttered. Narrowing her eyes at her sister, she asked. "When did you exactly become so delinquent-y?"

"Look, I am only looking out for my friend. For all he's done for us, I don't think dinner is too much to ask." Dawn said with a condemning look at her sister.

"Wow! Twist the guilt knife, why doncha? Okay, okay. I'll call Giles. He's got a friend over at the hospital. Maybe, he can bring some blood when he gets over here." Buffy said as she turned to use the phone.

"Why do we have to call Giles? He's just gonna want to interrogate Spike." Dawn complained as she slumped onto a stool.

"Well, First of all, he's got the connection to get blood that you're so anxious to get your hands on. Second, he's a watcher, so this vampire coming back from another dimension is just his thing. And third, he's our friend." Buffy retorted, with her hands on her hips.

"I don't know. I don't think Spike's up to having many visitors right now." Dawn said as she looked over worriedly at the vampire. "I don't want him to be overwhelmed."

"I think the ship has already left the dock on that aspect." Buffy muttered as she rolled her eyes and reached for the phone.

Just then, the front door opened, Tara and Willow entered followed by Xander and Anya who were merrily chatting away. Buffy looked stunned and Dawn lunged off her stool, ready to battle anyone who even looked at her vampire wrong.

"Buffy?" Willow called as she came down the hallway from the front door. "Oh, I see you found her! Hey, Dawn. You had us running all over town."

Buffy and Dawn both stared at the witch, who suddenly stopped where she was, frozen by their extreme expressions. Willow looked from Buffy to Dawn trying to gauge exactly what she had just walked in on. At this point, she was puzzled at what could be happening in the kitchen.

"Hey, guys!" Xander said affably as he came up behind Willow. "Anya and I ran into Willow and Tara at the Bronze.." He also stopped where he was when he saw the expressions on the Summers' women. "Okaaay… Anya! Don't get comfortable!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

"Uh. Hi, guys." Buffy said rather waveringly, looking briefly over at Dawn. With her mouth tightened into a thin line, Dawn turned to face her sister.

"Buffyyyy.." she warned, looking at her sister and flitting her eyes over to the people in the hallway and back.

Buffy feeling the threat emanating from her sister merely saying her name, froze for an instant. Then, she let out a silent laugh, at her reaction. Cocking her head, she raised up her arms in a helpless gesture.

"Oh, come on, Dawn. It's not like we're going to keep this secret." Buffy said with an exasperated tone.

"No, of course not. But it doesn't have to be tonight, does it? He just needs time." Dawn urgently whispered as she leaned her head forward.

"Who's he?" Willow asked from the hallway, with a tense smile and ducking her head around to see into the kitchen. Xander was also on his toes trying to see over the witch into the kitchen.

"Alright. I need you to promise me that you'll be gentle." Dawn said with a huge sigh as she turned to Willow and Xander.

Willow and Xander looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They both nodded.

"Okay, you can come in. No yelling, no intimidating and no sudden movements." Dawn reluctantly said, waving them forward.

"Gosh, Dawn. What have you got in there..a baby bird?" Xander joked from the hallway.

At that moment, Anya came around the other entrance to the kitchen. She had missed all the previous drama, so she blithely walked up to Buffy from the living room.

"Hi, Spike. When did you get back?" Anya called out before turning to Buffy and asking. "Buffy, do you have anything that will take beer out of suede? Some lunkhead at the Bronze spilled his beer on my new jacket."

Hearing the first two sentences, Willow and Xander nearly fell over as they charged into the kitchen. They stood there dumbfounded at the dazed vampire standing on the other side of the kitchen island. Dawn immediately took a step over between them and the vampire, holding up her arms to quiet anyone's reaction.

"Okay, Okay. Yes, it's Spike. He's back." Dawn tried to placate the situation before it got out of control. "It's been really hard on him, so let's just give him some space."

"What? How?" Willow asked, looking from Buffy to Dawn for answers.

"We don't know." Buffy answered grimly.

Xander was speechless. He looked at the state of the distraught vampire who was standing there staring at nothing and felt some empathy toward him. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed it again.

Tara had come in the same entrance as Anya to see what the commotion was all about. She stood there, shocked to see the emotionally exhausted vampire in the kitchen. Her empathic face reflected the emotions flooding over her as she looked at Spike.

"Oh, you poor thing." She whispered as she took a step closer to the island. "Dawn is right. I think the more people we get out of the kitchen now, the better."

With determination not to be denied, Tara ushered Willow, Xander and Anya out to the living room, leaving Spike alone with Buffy and Dawn once again.

Upon crossing the living room threshold, Willow turned to Tara, who was the last one to enter the living room.

"What did you see?" Willow asked, her eyebrows going up in a worried wrinkle.

"It's bad." Tara whispered, blinking back the moisture welling in her eyes. "That's all I am going to say."

…

Buffy watched the Scoobies leave the kitchen and turned toward Dawn. She beckoned Dawn over to hallway in between the kitchen and the entry hall.

"So what are you going to do with him? Buffy asked her sister curiously.

"I was thinking of putting him in the basement. He could use a shower and a change of clothes." Dawn stated matter of factly.

"Dawn. I am not sure that's such a good idea. I mean he's pretty freaked out. We don't know what he is capable of.." Buffy said, looking briefly over her shoulder at the kitchen. "And you have school tomorrow, what are you going to do with him then?"

"I know that he saved me from a vampire this evening. That's like the third time he's saved me." Dawn looked determinedly into her sister's face. "As for school, I am not going. It's only the second day; I won't be missing any tests."

"Dawn." Buffy exhaled in exasperation.

"This subject is not up for discussion. I've already made up my mind. Spike needs me and I am not going to let him down." Dawn said, crossing her arms and gritting her teeth in determination.

"Fine. Throw your life away! It's your decision. You're lucky, tomorrow is Friday; but, let's get this clear...you're going back to school on Monday." Buffy said crossing her arms to match her sister.

"Glad to see you're being reasonable." Dawn said, happily and turned to go into the kitchen.

She hopped into the kitchen to see her vampire and suddenly stopped short and small sound. The back door was bouncing on its' hinges as it swung in the night breeze.

Spike was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 4

Buffy pulled up the collar of her coat up around her neck as she fought against the nighttime chill that was currently trying to seep into her bones. She had been looking for this loony vampire for over an hour now as she repeatedly grasped her hands trying to keep them warm. She wondered how fast the mentally disturbed were supposed to move. She thought he would have been easy to find, but we're talking Spike here. How did she always end up with all the grunt work she asked herself. Here she was, stuck searching for that stupid blonde vampire in the middle of the night. She could not believe it, as soon as Spike shows up, life gets complicated. Everyone knows vampires can take care of themselves, as if she didn't have better things to do like showering or sleeping. As she trudged down a deserted street, thoughts about tonight's events were bouncing around in head.

She didn't want to think about the conflicting feelings that arose in her when she saw Spike standing there in the kitchen. She stood there in a conflict of shock, relief, and dread in the same instant as she stared at Spike. Of course, she was glad to see the vampire, it took a little off the guilt angle to see he was back. Besides, it always good to have someone with that kind of strength on your team, it would sure make her life easier with patrolling. Okay, he had that lovesick puppy thing going on with her. He really surprised her that night with Glory and she would always be grateful; but just because he saved her sister did not mean they had become pals or anything. If I act even a slightly obliged, it will be taken for more than what it is. He'll be harder to lose than freshly chewed gum stuck on the bottom of her new shoe. This..this is just awkward! Why couldn't things be easy, he saves my sister and just disappears forever.

"Oh my god! I can't believe I just thought that. You're a terrible person, Buffy Summers" Buffy muttered to herself, shocked at her own thoughts.

Stopping at a corner of an intersection, Buffy remembered how Dawn had freaked when she saw Spike was no longer in the kitchen. Buffy shook her head in exasperation. Dawn ranted for a full three minutes about what a bad idea it was to have everyone come into the kitchen. Where did she get off blaming the vampire's disappearing act on Buffy and the gang. It was obvious there was a lot more going on with Spike than just having a few friends drop by unexpectedly. Internally, Buffy was a little relieved that Spike had left, she wasn't sure about keeping the unbalanced vampire in the house. When Dawn announced that she was going after him, Buffy was at her wits end to keep Dawn from flying out the backdoor. Dawn was adamant that someone should go after Spike. So, unless Buffy wanted to sit on top of her sister for the entire night to keep her from crawling out window, she promised to find the blonde vampire and bring him back.

"Spike, come out, come out wherever you are. I really don't need the additional drama. It's getting really late and really cold." She grumbled as she peered down a nearby street.

A movement caught her eye. The pavement glowed under the moonlight, but far down the street, Buffy could make out the vague image of something moving. She narrowed her eyes and saw a vague silhouette stand out against a blanket of darkness. The figure was steadily marching away in a slow methodical manner.

"Uhh!" Buffy uttered as she proceeded to run after the figure down the street, her feet sending gravel scattering across the asphalt.

"Spike!" She called as she closed the gap between them. She was not surprised when he did not acknowledge her. There was no reaction from the retreating vampire as she continued to call out to him. His pace did not slow as the muffled sounds of his worn boots counted out the solemn rhythm down the street.

"Spike, stop!" Buffy called out as she ran around him to stop his progression.

Breathing hard, she held up her hands as she spun around about three feet in front of him. He pulled his head back when she appeared in front of him. For just a quarter of a second, his eyes locked on Buffy, then taking a ragged breath, he looked away.

"Where do you think you're going? You just can't stir things up and leave Dawn like that." Buffy breathlessly demanded of the vampire.

There was no response from the vampire, other than a slight shudder than ran through his gaunt frame. Keeping his eyes averted, he began to take a step slightly to the left of Buffy.

"Hey! I am talking to you!" Buffy warned as she took a counter step to block his path. She held up her hand to reach out to the vampire.

Spike took a sudden step back from Buffy as if she was holding a brand of fire. He tightened his arms around his body and looked away from Buffy. He seemed to want to avoid her. Seeing the vampire's reaction, ignited the flame of anger already on top of her pile of irritation inside Buffy's head.

Okay, you want to play Mr. Avoid-y. That's too darn bad! Now that you've got me out here, you're just going to have to deal." Buffy threatened as she took another step closer and watched the vampire retreat. "Oh great! I guess I'll have to herd you back to the house. Go on! Giddy up, cowboy!"

Looking around to see where they were, Buffy realized that they were much closer to the cemetery than Revello drive, she decided to direct the vampire toward his old crypt. Buffy figured that as long as Dawn knew where to find the vampire, it would be okay with her. Buffy began to counter Spike movements until they were heading toward his old crypt.

"We're going to go to your crypt. We have a better chance of making it there before sunrise and I do want to get some sleep tonight. Shoo! Shoo!" Buffy called out as she held her arms out to block any deviation from the course.

Anytime he diverged from the path back to the cemetery, she ran around to block his path. Finally after an innumerable number of minutes, she got Spike in front of his old crypt. Running ahead, she opened the door.

"Good. It looks the same as it always did." Buffy said as she stuck her head in quickly to see if any new occupants had taken up residence. She turned her head back to Spike who had wandered off a bit.

Running back to him, she managed to guide him back toward the crypt. The pair slowly approached the stairs that led up to the crypt door way, and suddenly Spike stopped.

"Well? Go on!" Buffy said impatiently. "Why have you stopped?"

For a moment, Spike's eyes cleared as they looked over the front of the crypt. His eyes slid over the structure taking in each detail before him. Every little crack or chipped in the molding sung out to him like the sound of a mother's voice at homecoming. Painfully, he closed his eyes for a moment, willing the vision to go away.

"Oh, I don't have time! Go! Go!" Buffy grumbled as she stood behind him. Irritated, she stamps her feet, trying to encourage him up the steps and mutters. "Oh what the hell!"

"SPIKE! GO IN THE CRYPT!" She yells at the back of his head, fighting her instinct to toss him inside. She balls her hands into fists.

To her surprise, his head straightens and does the tilt that she had gotten so used to seeing. Without any other sign, he walks up the steps and into the crypt. As soon as he has crossed the doorway, Buffy who had quickly followed him, yanked the door closed with a grunt coming out between her clenched teeth. Seeing an odd piece of metal, she threads it through the handle so the door cannot be opened from the inside.

"Good night, Spike." Buffy exhales as she turns to go home and tell Dawn where her precious vampire is spending the night.

….

The next morning, the chirping of birds accompanied by machine gun sound of water sprinklers as it filtered into the crypt, indicating that day had arrived. A few hours later, the sound of a young woman wrestling with something seemed to crawl underneath the crypt's door. The sound of metal clanging onto concrete momentarily preempted the door swinging open. The silhouette of a long legged girl was standing there at the entrance.

"Hi, Spike. It's just me." Dawn called out into the darkened hallows of the crypt.

Dawn then turned and picked up two large paper grocery bags from the ground. Without looking directly at him, she bounced through the crypt with buoyancy that only the young can display.

"I brought you some blood." She said as she hefted one bag in each arm as she easily crossed through the doorway over to a sarcophagus. Placing both of the bags on the tomb, she immediately began to dig into one.

"I had to wait for the butcher shop to open. They really didn't seem to be dazed by my request for pig's blood… Go figure." Dawn chatted good naturedly. Pulling out some camping items from one bag. "I figured that you may not have electricity, so I brought one of those propane camp burners. Don't worry. I borrowed these from Janice. Her dad has a whole lot of camping gear in their garage from his middle age crisis thing. He was going to scale Mount Everest or something. It didn't work out. One camping trip and it was over. Janice said we could use this as long as we needed it."

Dawn began to quickly assemble the burner unit over the propane bottle and quickly lit it with a match. She then pulled out a saucepan and a thermos of water. Filling the saucepan with water, she placed a saucepan on top of the unit. She grabbed a two of the blood bags and dropped them into the sauce pan.

"I hope you're hungry. I don't even attempt cooking for just anyone." She called to him, without looking at him. "I hope these bags don't burst. I don't think they're meant to be boil in bags."

She stood there gently poking the bags into the warming water and adjusting the flame on the burner underneath. She stared at the bags, making sure that the blood would not get over heated. Satisfied that the first two bags were sufficiently warm, she pulled them out with a pair of tongs and placed them to the side on the edge of the sarcophagus.

"Come and get it!" Dawn called as she reached to grab another pair of blood bags from the grocery sack. "Come on. Before I throw it out!"

There was the sound of gentle stilted shuffling of boots. Spike slowly moved out of the darkness from the far wall. He came forward as if he was dragging a great weight behind him. He finally came to a stop by the edge of the sarcophagus. He stood there, casting his eyes away not looking at Dawn or the blood bags in front of him.

Dawn leaned over and looking up into his face asked. "Aren't you hungry?"

She picked up one of the warmed blood bags and offered it to him. She held it in her upturned hand at just about his waist level. Seeing the blood, Spike raised his eyes briefly and looked at Dawn. They stared at each other for a few seconds as a slow smile spread over Dawn's face as she felt Spike's hand take the blood bag.

For the next thirty minutes, Dawn was happy to play chef for Spike. She had gotten ten bags of blood and was pleased to see Spike had nearly eaten every one of them. Dawn was enjoying the heady feeling of accomplishment and setting down the last warmed blood bag on the sarcophagus when she heard the dulcet tones of her sister

"DAWN! I told you to wait for me before you come over here." Buffy exclaimed as she charged into the crypt. Spike wrapped his arms around his torso and turned his face away from the Slayer.

"Don't you know he can be dangerous!" Buffy hissed as she came closer to her sister.

"No. I don't believe I have ever seen Spike be dangerous to me." Dawn countered as she methodically turned off the propane cylinder. "Maybe, he's different around me. Maybe because I am not such a bi…"

"Don't say it!" Buffy yelled, shocked

"What? I was going to say a bitter old nag. What did you think I was going to say?" Dawn asked, with feigned innocence.

"Something else. I am not happy with the bitter old nag comment, either." Buffy grumbled, scowling at her sister.

"Look, I know you wanted to come here with me this morning, but you were still asleep when I left for the butcher shop this morning." Dawn said in she thought was perfect line of logic.

"Yeah. I would have probably been up earlier, if I hadn't had to go track down a certain loopy vampire…" Buffy grumbled.

"You can see everything is just fine. Spike and I are just finishing up breakfast." Dawn said as she began to gather the empty blood bags. "I think you can go."

"Hey, no way. I am not leaving you alone with vampire ala mental here. If you're here, I'm staying." Buffy announced as she crossed her arms and gave her sister an annoyed look.

Seeing the vampire had not picked up the last blood bag, Dawn saw that Spike's eyes were once again looking away. The vampire had retreated into himself once again. Dawn looked over from the vampire to her sister who was inserting an element of unease into the once happy scene.

"Um, I think you make him uncomfortable." Dawn slowly stated, worriedly biting her lower lip.

"Isn't that too bad. I'm not leaving." Buffy retorted, crankily.

"Please Buffy. I am trying to make him better." Dawn whispered urgently to her sister

"Dawn, I think it would take a whole staff of doctors and a couple of pharmaceutical companies to accomplish anything like that." Buffy said sarcastically. Then looking at her sister's concerned face, added. "You're just a kid. This is all a little intense. Why do you think you need to do this?"

"I owe him, Buffy." Dawn answered calmly as she turned her head back to regard the vampire. "He looks so lost. He wouldn't be like this if it wasn't for me."

"He's a vampire, Dawn." Buffy countered as she walked up slowly to her sister and placed her hand on her arm. "He'll bounce back. It's what vampires do."

"Well, he's going to have my help." Dawn said determinedly with a nod of her chin. " I am not about to leave him in this state, not after everything."

"Dawn, I think you're mistaken." Buffy warned as her eyes flew over to the forlorn vampire.

"Really Buffy?" Dawn answered with measured annoyance, as she turned and put her hand on her hip. "About what?"

"I think you have let this crush thing carry you away" Buffy announced as she flitted her hand about. "Spike is now back, all needy and pathetic. It is all so romantic."

"Buffy, I am not a child. The fact is that he did save me. He threw himself into that portal to close it. He saved not only me, but you, the Scoobies, everyone…the world" Dawn exclaimed with a grim look at her sister.

"So, now you're making it that he is some kind of hero now." Buffy answered with a tilt of her head as she pointed to Spike.

"He IS a hero." Dawn angrily enunciated at her sister.

"NO!" Spike's voice rang out, reverberating around the walls of the crypt. "Not. a hero."


	5. Chapter 5

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 5

Stunned, Dawn and Buffy stood frozen as Spike's voice reverberated around the tomb. They had not moved from their positions from their argument, but continued to stare at each other with shocked expressions. Slowly, the sisters turned their heads to regard the vampire who was standing against a darkened area near the wall of the crypt.

Spike felt sick as he heard his own voice echoing back to him. He began to shake his head in denial at the condemning evidence that his voice had made. 'Idiot. Bleedin idiot.' he told himself. As long as he did not speak, there was a chance that he could extricate himself from this painful illusion. If he did not participate, the less the pain would be when everything melted away. He shook his head in disbelief that he had spoken as if he could escape the words. He moved his trembling hand to cover his eyes over his bent head, slowly sliding it from side to side. The other hand came up to create a tent over his brows. Slowly, the hands shakily closed over his eyes, barring the outside from coming in, his unneeded breathing becoming harsher and heavier. He cursed himself a fool for allowing the interaction with Dawn. Despite the knowledge that this was all false, there was part of him that so yearned for it to be true. Everytime he looked at Dawn, that wish overwhelmed any self protection he had constructed. Even, the blood she had given him was so real, it was almost like he was back. No, they were just getting better with their delusions he reminded himself. He had to convince himself that this experience was not real. It gnawed at him that he had so little self control, blurting out that ignominious statement. He had let them in, again! They must be enjoying that. God, he was such a weak fool! Trying to stem the quaking of his body from the repercussions of his action, Spike unevenly moved closer toward the wall. 'It isn't real.' he repeated in his mind.

Pulling her eyes away from her sister, Dawn began to take a step away from Buffy toward the vampire. Buffy latched on to her sister's wrist to stop her. Dawn looked over at Buffy who raised her eyebrows and grimaced while looking back between Spike and Dawn. Dawn tilted her head and gave her sister a knowing look, while calmly removing Buffy's hand from her wrist. Leaning slightly at the waist to look up into Spike's downturned face, Dawn slowly approached the vampire.

"Spike. You spoke." She said as she approached the beleaguered vampire who still had his hands over his face. She continued to move toward him as she quietly spoke. "Spike. Are you okay? Spike?"

At the sound of the question, Spike opened his hands from over his face and pulled one down, leaving one cradling his temple. He looked briefly at Dawn, his face was so heartsore that she jerked still in her progression. Spike quickly brought his head up and peered straight ahead as his eyes swam to find something to focus on other than Dawn as he swallowed hard.

"Okay. No one is going to make you talk, if you don't want to." Holding her hands up in a calming gesture, Dawn declared as she saw the state that Spike was in. She backed up a step, and pulled herself up to a sitting position on the stone top of the sarcophagus.

"Is it okay if I just sit here?" She asked as she made herself comfortable on the tomb. Spike did not acknowledge her statement, nor did he make any move to turn away.

"Buffy, I think I am going to be here a while. If you wanna go…" Dawn said, looking back at her sister who had not moved.

"Not on your life, Sister. As I said before if you're staying, I'm staying." Buffy proclaimed as she stood there with her arms crossed.

"Then you better make yourself comfortable. I'm just going to hang out here with my friend, Spike." Dawn said over her shoulder and then turned to smile at the vampire.

"Ugh!" Buffy said as she looked for a less dusty place to sit down. "Don't remind me. It is the last thing I hoped for my little sister to get involved with a vampire. I mean, shouldn't your teenage years be characterized by going to parties, having fun at the beach, hanging out with your friends..uh hm..living friends."

"I don't believe that I am the first Summers girl to care about a vampire. And that whole teenage stuff is so overrated. I think you've been watching too many zit cream commercials." Dawn said, rolling her eyes. Smiling as she looked at Spike, she continued. "Spike is my friend. My very, very special friend."

"Fine. So what are we going to do? Play the quiet game? I think Spike has already won that one." Buffy said as she gingerly sat down on what she considered a less dusty place.

"I am going to bring Spike up on what's happened since he's been gone." Dawn said and began to babble happily at the vampire.

…..

Several hours went by, as the sound of Dawn's unceasing voice drowned out the sound of birds being replaced by the sound of crickets in the cemetery near the crypt. Inside the crypt, Dawn was chattering away to her heart's content. With a few interjections from Buffy, Dawn retold the last six month history of herself, Buffy, Giles and the rest of the Scoobies. Spike continued to stand, not looking at either of the girls. It was getting close to mid day, when Dawn turned around and addressed Buffy.

"Buffy, I want to get Spike some more blood. He's so skinny." Dawn asked with pleading eyes. "Do you think you could go get it?"

"Hey, What did I say before? I am not leaving you alone with him." Buffy answered, who now had her feet propped up on a ledge in the tomb. She pulled down her feet from the ledge and pulled herself up into a standing position. She walked over to the sarcophagus where Dawn was sitting.

"You already fed him once today. He should be good till this evening." Buffy said as she came along her sister.

"If he was normal, I would say okay; but, look at him. I think we need to build him up so he can get better." Dawn said, keeping her voice low as she kept her eyes on Spike who continued to stare away from the girls. "Please go to the butcher's and pick up some more blood."

"No way. I'm not leaving you alone with him. " Buffy said, looking away from her sister's best puppy dog eyes. "I'll tell you what. He's not going anywhere. Why don't we just lock him in and go get him some more blood and some lunch for us while we're out."

"Lock him in?" Dawn said slowly. "That's kind of mean. Besides, I don't think he should be alone."

"Well, what do you have in mind?" Buffy said as she raised an eyebrow at her sister.

"Why don't you stay with him while I go pick up more blood and some lunch for us. Feel like tacos? My treat." Dawn said as she bounced down from the sarcophagus. Looking over at Spike, she added. "Maybe, I'll get a Taco Xtra Loco for Spike. He always liked spicy things."

"Dawn, I don't think that such a good idea to expect him to be the old Spike anytime soon." Buffy said as she eyed the vampire. "I think he may need specialists or something."

"Why? Don't think you can handle him yourself?" Dawn asked, tilting her head forward and, peering quizzically into her sister's face.

"It's not that." Buffy said defensively. She looked down and straightened her top.

"Then what?" Dawn appealed, raising her arm in a fruitlessly confounded manner

It's…It's just weird. I mean, maybe, we should leave him alone." Buffy muttered, and then leaned over to her sister and whispered. "He may be embarrassed to know we saw him this way."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about needing help." Dawn countered. "He helped plenty last year when we needed it."

"Okay. Okay, I'll stay." Buffy surrendered with a big huff. "Sheez! Just don't think that I will be this altruistic from now on."

"Wouldn't dare!" Dawn said beaming at her sister. "Good. Now I'll be as quick as I can." Dawn said as she made her way to the door and then turned around to address Buffy one more time. " Remember, please don't kill him while I'm out, okay?"

….

Dawn had been gone nearly six minutes, by the time the boredom had become overwhelming to Buffy. Walking around the crypt and looking at Spike from several different angles, she noticed the vampire kept changing his position so he wouldn't see her. She realized he was aware of her, but was trying to avoid her just like last night. Now that he was trapped here in the crypt with her while the sun was up, he was just going to have to get over it. Dawn's touchy feely routine wasn't making much headway, maybe a more direct approach would work. Now it was time to see what Buffy could do. She walked directly up to the vampire and stood there in front of him.

"Hi, Spike." Buffy said matter of factly to the vampire.

No response from the vampire, other than the eyes moved to a point over her head.

"Spike. I said hello." Buffy said a little louder, ducking her head to catch his eyes.

"Hello, Spike" She repeated, looking to see what the vampire would do.

"Spike. Earth to Spike. Are you there?" Buffy looked into the vampire's eyes and then decided if a little playful banter would break the ice.

"Hello. Phone call for Spike. Paging Mr. Spike. Please pick up the courtesy phone." She said with a gentle chuckle as she worked her best flirty simper at the vampire

"Oh, come on!" She blurted as she saw the dismal results of her flirting. "I am standing right here. I know you can see me!" She stood there with her hands on her hips as she waited for a reaction. A moment later, she spun on her heel and walked away.

"Fine. Be that way!" She said as she marched a few feet way. "I really didn't want to talk to you anyway."

For the next few minutes, Buffy did everything she could to keep from looking at the vampire. She hummed as she looked at the ceiling, picked up any interesting pieces of masonry and kicked a few pieces of rubble around. Eventually, her path took her back around to where the vampire was standing. Taking a deep breath, she decided to give it one more try and stood in front of him again.

"Spike. How long are you going to keep this up? You gotta talk." Buffy uttered as she looked at the dejected figure before her. "It's one of the things you do best."

"This isn't like you. Why won't you talk? I know you can. I heard you earlier." Buffy argued. Then remembering what he had said earlier, she moved closer. "You said you weren't a hero. What did you mean? Talk to me, Spike. I'm right here."

As she said the last words, she placed her hand on Spike's arm. Suddenly, his whole body suddenly flailed backwards a few steps as he physically retreated from Buffy.

"Spike? I am not going to hurt you." Buffy stated as she began to take a step toward the panting vampire, who was now crouched over at the waist. "I want you to talk to me. If not for me, at least, for Dawn's sake. She really cares about you."

For every step that Buffy took, Spike took a matching retreating step, still keeping his face averted from looking at Buffy. It continued for several steps until Buffy almost had Spike boxed in against a corner of the crypt. At the next step, Spike made a move to break away, he rushed past the Slayer. As he did so, she abruptly captured his arm with such strength, that he was pulled back. Spinning around, Spike instinctively put his hand on hers to break the hold, but did so with such panic that Buffy was thrown back a few steps and landed on her trendy outfit covered butt.

"Okay, no more Ms. Nice Slayer" Buffy grumbled as she got to her feet. She dusted off her pants. She muttered an expletive when she saw the dirt stain now ground in on the backside of her pants. She balled up her fists as she fiercely marched after Spike.

Spike had retreated to the opposite side of the crypt. His arms wrapped around him, trying to contain the shaking that permeating his frame. His head was down and his eyes were shut closed as he was trying to reason that whole thing was deception.

Buffy marched up to Spike, grabbing his arm to pull him around. Spike roughly pulled his arm away which pulled Buffy forward, inflaming anger within her.

"Stupid vampire!" Buffy grumbled as she reached around and grabbed his arm with both hands. He spun around, flinging an arm in defense. Buffy ducked under the inaccurate blow and stood up, looking the vampire in the face. Gritting her teeth, she pulled back and landed a quick punch right on Spike's nose.

Spike's head viciously rocked back with the force of the punch. The pain in his nose shot through him shocking him. His eyes watering, he pulled up both hands to cradle the area around his nose as his mouth was pulled into a silent moan. He staggered for a bit as the reaction to Buffy's blow flowed through him. He slowly opened his eyes to see the Slayer standing there, ready to launch a second blow at him. The tingle inside his nose letting him know that blood would soon trickle down on his lip, brought the realization that perhaps this was not an illusion. He brought his hands down from his face as he leaned his head forward.

"Buffy?" he quietly asked. "Are…Are you real?"

"Is that a trick question? Of course, I am real. Don't be stupid, Spike." Buffy said, looking at the vampire skeptically.

Hearing the insult, the vampire seemed to have a physical reaction. He made a high guttural sound in his throat as his chest began to heave. As he stood there, his eyes watered as tears came unbidden as he looked at Buffy. He began to work his mouth, trying to subdue the sobs that seemed to want to burst from him. In the next instance, his strength left him and he crumbled into a pile at Buffy's feet. Kneeling, he rested his shoulder against her legs as the sobs shook his body.

Stunned, Buffy looked down at the vampire leaning against her legs, hearing the muffled sounds of his weeping. For a moment, she did not know what to do. Slowly, she began to crouch down until she was kneeling next to him. She inexpertly arranged her arms around Spike's shaking shoulders. She calmly held him as he hung his head and let his sorrow pour out him.

Neither of them was too sure how long they had been like that, when Dawn laden with bags, appeared at the doorway as her voice carried into the crypt.

"Buffy! What did you do?"


	6. Chapter 6

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 6

It was the last thing she ever expected to see: Buffy comforting Spike as they huddled together on the broken stones of the crypt's floor. Dawn had been filled with worry as she hurried from Ernie's Taco Town over to the butchers and then back to cemetery. She just knew something was going to happen while those two were left alone. She was well aware that she was on borrowed time when it came to Buffy's good graces toward Spike. As she ran the last twenty yards toward the crypt, she repeated a mantra of 'Let everything be okay.' in her head. As she breathlessly stood at the doorway, she was astounded at the sight before her. Spike was obviously in distress while Buffy was doing her best to comfort him. What had happened while she was gone? It is not that she did not trust her sister. Well, wait a minute! She DIDN'T trust her sister when it came to Spike. She narrowed her eyes at her sister and asked a simple question.

"Buffy! What did you do?"

Balancing the unwieldy paper bags in her arms, she slowly took a few steps inside the crypt toward the pair. She saw that Buffy was kneeling on the dust covered floor with her arms around Spike's shoulders as the vampire's body shuddered. She halted at the top of the stairs as Buffy raised her guilty looking eyes toward her.

For one of the few moments of her life, Buffy did not know what to say as she released her hold on the vampire's shoulder as she pulled back to answer her sister. For some reason, she could not pull completely away from the vampire and rested her hand on the back of his shoulder. Buffy opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to organize her thoughts.

How was she to know that a punch to the nose would make Spike crumble at her feet? The hopeless and devastated look in his eyes shook her to her core. The tremulous quality of his voice was nothing like the Spike she knew. This voice was lost and weak as it asked if she was real. What a stupid question! When he had collapsed in tears, her first instinct was to flee. Why she had stayed, she could not fathom. Spike was a vampire, an evil soulless vampire. He wasn't supposed to crack. He was supposed to okay. She had thought he just needed a good hearty kick to his pants to start him up like an old car on a frosty morning. She didn't like what the vampire was making her feel. It was weird. They're supposed to be enemies, right? So, why couldn't she pull away from him? She let her hand rest on his shoulder, patting it a few times like he had done for her that night on her back porch.

When Buffy didn't answer her immediately, Dawn set the bags down at the top of the stairs and went to the pair. She sat down on the opposite side of Spike, extending her long legs to the side. She wrapped her arms around his lower ribs. For a minute, she rested the side of her chin against his shoulder as his body jolted with each breath. Then, Dawn shifted her body back a bit to look at Buffy who was still sitting there on the other side of Spike.

"What happened?" Dawn ducked her head and whispered to Buffy, hoping her sister would explain to her what had happened while she was gone.

"Well..I uh..I got him to talk." Buffy answered, shifting uncomfortably and looking a bit uneasy.

"He spoke?" Dawn brightened and with a small smile, craned her neck toward her sister as she asked. "What did he say?"

"He..He asked me if I was real." Buffy answered begrudgingly

"That's it? So, how did you end up here?" Dawn asked, looking around at the crypt.

"He just kinda went to pieces after I said yes." Buffy stated as her eyes darted to the vampire as she gave him a few slow pats.

Suddenly a sound of pain broke from Spike's lips. He stopped rocking as he began to shake his head in denial. Spike groaned as he frantically pulled himself away from the grip of the two sisters. Climbing clumsily to his feet, he lurched away from them. He fled to the other side of the crypt, crashing against the cob web covered wall. He slid down the wall until he sat leaning against the wall with his knees were pulled up in front of him. After so long of being without any gentle contact, all of his old doubts came flooding back to the forefront of his mind. What if this was another trick? It was too much. He couldn't process it all. He just needed to get back to the blankness, if he could. He closed his eyes, turned his face away and willed it all to go away.

Buffy and Dawn had not moved as they saw the vampire scramble away from them. They were stunned at the frantic withdrawal. Seeing the Spike retreat from them, neither sister was sure how to react. Buffy looked over at Dawn, who was staring at Spike.

"Dawn, I don't think we're getting anywhere." Buffy muttered. "I think this is beyond a group hug thing."

"Buffy, I am not going to give up on him" Dawn declared as she did not take her eyes off the vampire.

"Uh, This doesn't look so good. He's trying to get away from us, again." Buffy argued.

"It's been less than a day, Buffy." Dawn stated, looking briefly over at her sister. "I think we can give him some more time to as you say 'bounce back'."

"I am just trying to be realistic." Buffy went on to clarify "Maybe we're not the right sort of help. Maybe another vampire, like Angel could help him."

"Yeah, because the last time they were together, it was such a happy occasion!" Dawn exclaimed with a harsh laugh.

As the sisters' discussion continued, Spike had opened his eyes. Ignoring the buzz of the conversation going on between the two sisters, he leaned the top of his head back against the stone wall. His vision crawling up the stone masonry until it rested on a frosted window. The window kept out most of the sun rays, but allowed a glowing light into the crypt. There was a small corner that had broken away which was allowing a tiny beam of light shone into the crypt. Spike's eyes traveled from the window as the small tube of sunshine cut through the dusty air in the crypt. The brilliance fascinated him. He watched it illuminate the tiny dust motes that hung in the air. It was bringing up long forgotten voices in him, each shouting a conflicting concerto of terror and wonder as he stared at it. Despite the cacophony of voices, he was compelled to reach for the strange glowing element. Slowly, Spike lifted a hand toward the bright beam that was suspended a few feet in front of him. His fingers splayed as he shakily reached toward it.

Buffy and Dawn were still in the middle of their discussion when Dawn grabbed Buffy's arm

"Do you smell something?" Dawn exclaimed with a look of fear on her face.

Buffy stopped. Cocking her head, she sniffed the air. Yeah, there was something in the air. Something was burning. What could that be? Dawn's sudden shout made her turn about to see her sister fly across the crypt. Dawn grabbed Spike's arm and pulled his smoking hand away from the sunlight.

"Spike! What? What are you doing?" Dawn asked as she flung her body down next to the dazed vampire. She cradled his hand in her hands as she pulled it into her lap.

"Buffy! There are some drinks in one of those bags. Bring me one, would ya?" Dawn commanded

"Dawn…okay." Buffy began to argue, but seeing her sister's determination decided to cooperate.

As Dawn watched her sister trudge over to the bags, she almost missed the raspy low voice that floated through the air.

"It burned." The barely audible voice said with puzzled wonder.

She bit her lip in happiness. Spike spoke. She did not want to startle him, so she slowly turned her head back to look at his hand. She could just barely see him out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, it did." Dawn answered in a calm low pitched voice.

"My hand is burned." Spike stated again as if he was trying to confirm the situation in his head.

"I see that. Does it hurt bad?" As Dawn said this, Buffy had made it over with one of the soft drink cups in her hand and a couple of napkins. She had not heard the conversation between the two.

"Here ya go! I brought some napkins too. How does it look?" Buffy said as she stood over her sister looking at the hand she was cradling. Dawn gave her sister a few small nods.

"Spike, I am going to put some ice on your hand. Is that okay?" Dawn gently asked the vampire, still not looking directly at him.

After a moment, to Buffy's surprise, Spike answered with a breathless "Yeah."

Dawn motioned to Buffy to pull off the lid of the drink. Placing one of the napkins under Spike's hand, Dawn reached over to the cup Buffy was holding and scooped a small quantity of crushed ice out of the cup. She gently smoothed the ice over Spike's burns. Spike jumped when the ice touched his skin, his head turned to look at his hand been held by Dawn. His eyes traveled from his hand to Dawn's face and then over to Buffy's.

"I'm back?" Spike said with uncertainty

"Yes, you are. And I am very glad to have you back." Dawn answered him, beaming at him.

…

Dawn patted Spike's hand dry with one of the napkins. She continued to keep hold of it after the burns had disappeared and the vampire had fallen asleep against the wall of the crypt. Dawn did not leave Spike's side as he slept; she kept his hand in her lap the entire time. Everytime the vampire seemed to be in suffering from some distressing dream; Dawn would lean over and whisper in his ear that he was home again. It seemed to miraculously quiet the vampire. As dusk settled over the cemetery, Spike groggily opened his eyes. Dawn was insistent that he accompany them to their house, so he could get cleaned up. Buffy grabbed some of clothes that were downstairs along with the blood that Spike had not eaten. With the bewildered vampire in tow, the Summers girls determinedly made their way back to Revello drive.

….

A few hours later, Giles arrived at Buffy's front door. Buffy opened the door while pulling a stray piece of hair back behind her ear.

"Hey, Giles. You wouldn't believe the day I'm having." Buffy said, looking up at the ceiling as she usher Giles through the door.

"Yes. Um. I heard that Spike was back." Giles said as he wandered toward the living room, stopping for a moment to remove his coat. "Anya mentioned it at the store today."

"Yeah, sorry that you had to be the last one to know." Buffy apologized as she turned to hang Giles' coat on the rack. "I was going to call you last night, but things went ..for want of a better word..'crazy'."

"Yeah, you should have seen him last night. He looked like that freaky relative you keep locked up in the attic." Xander interjected as he walked over to greet Giles.

"Xander." Willow warned as she sat down next to Tara.

"What? I am just saying what he looked like." Xander turned around with his arms bent at the elbows.

"I'll have you know, he's doing much better now. He even talks on his own." Buffy said as she walked back to Giles.

"Wow, next thing you know he'll be able to feed himself and walk on two legs." Xander whispered to Anya who giggled guiltily.

"Come on, Xander. He's b..been through a lot. I think it would be nice if everyone would show him a little con..consideration for a while." Tara spoke up, causing everyone to look at her which made her incredibly uncomfortable.

"Tara's right. I mean he did manage to manage to save Dawn and close the portal when we were fighting Glory." Willow said, giving Tara an affectionate nudge. "I think we should give him a break."

"Excuse me. Let's all remember that he is a vampire, but okay. I'll take it down a notch for now." Xander huffed. "But once he's back on his feet, there will be no more overt coddling of the vampires."

"Speaking of coddling…Where is Spike?" Giles asked as he looked around.

"Dawn has him upstairs. She is trying to help clean him up. She was asking where Mom kept the sewing shears..I think someone is playing barbershop." Buffy remarked, nodding her head over to the stairs. Suddenly, Buffy slapped a hand to her head and winced. "Ooh! I just remembered what her dolls use to look like when she used to play hairdresser. Poor Spike. As if he doesn't have enough to overcome."

"Has anyone asked him what happened to him? Where he's been?" Giles said as he pulled off his glasses.

"Actually, we just got him talking again…well, not really talking like Spike usually does. He is definitely more on the subdued side. Just don't be surprised when he is not..well chatty." Buffy said and then warned the group. "Prepare yourself for the long awkward silences."

Just then, the door to Dawn's room opened up. Her voice traveled down the stairwell as the sound of her energetic footsteps came into the hallway. She stopped at the top of the stairwell and turned back to her room.

"I must say that I think it turned out pretty well. I know that I am not a professional, but it looks good." Dawn said encouragingly

The sound of halting heavier footsteps followed Dawn Turning, Dawn went down the stairs just a few feet a head of Spike. Coming into view of the living room, Dawn suddenly halted.

"Oh, wow! Everyone's here." Dawn said worriedly as she suddenly stopped on the stairs. She turned back to Spike and whispered something urgently to him.

He stopped and looked at the living room. He continued to take a step forward. The action urged Dawn to move forward ahead of him. She waited for him at the bottom of the stairs, gluing herself to his side once he arrived at her side. They moved slowly to the living room entrance.

The stopped at the doorway. Spike was now freshly scrubbed and newly shorn. The clean clothes although his own, hung on him making his gaunt appearance even more noticeable. Spike looked briefly around the room, not allowing his eyes to rest on any particular person. Finally his eyes came to rest on the floor.

"Hello Spike." Giles said as he moved forward. "Won't you join us?"

Spike did not respond, but leaned his head toward Dawn. Dawn pulled on his arm and guided him to the couch. Everyone pivoted as they watched Spike and Dawn move to the sofa and sit down.

"So, how are you, Spike?" Giles asked as he sat down in the chair across from the sofa.

There was no answer from Spike as he continued to stare in front of him. Dawn could feel the muscle in Spike's bicep tighten.

"He's doing better." Dawn answered for the vampire.

"Yeah, he's looking a lot better. He's a lot less mangy looking." Buffy stated as her eyes measured the vampire on the sofa. " I see you gave him a haircut. It looks..good. Rather punk like."

"Thanks, I had to cut it really short, there were so many tangles. Spike was really patient." Dawn said as she patted the vampires arm.

"Yeah, I see you're still sporting the Billy Idol look. Must have been a bitch keeping up those roots." Xander chuckled as he ribbed the vampire.

"Actually, I don't think he bleaches his hair anymore. It is coming out white all on its own." Dawn stated, looking around the room at the Scoobies.


	7. Chapter 7

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 7

Everyone looked uneasily around the living room as they tried not to stare at Spike. As Dawn magnanimously smiled at the roomful of people, it was hard for everyone's eyes not to slip over to regard the vampire sitting next to her. The room was deadly silent for a few moments, as everyone stared at Spike. This Spike was so different from the Spike they all knew, that it was like having a stranger come into their little group. No one was willing to jar the precarious grip that the blonde vampire was holding onto reality by saying the wrong thing. Not knowing what to do next, Buffy looked over to the other Scoobies. Only Giles did not seem uncomfortable as he sat in the chair, lost in his study of Spike. Buffy raised her eyebrows at the witches, conveying that someone should say something. With a small sound of sudden awareness, Willow nodded and leaned forward.

"So, Spike, long time, no see. How are you?" she artificially breezily asked the vampire

Spike raised his eyes briefly to look at the two witches across the coffee table. He quickly turned his head and looked away. His mouth opened and then shut as he seemed to be summoning some control. He moved his head back jerkily as he briefly met Willow's eyes.

"I'm…I'm fine." He uttered to the room, convincing no one. Everyone's eyes traveled down to his hands where his fingers were busily plucking at each other.

"He's doing great." Dawn said as she momentarily leaned her shoulder against Spike. Turning her head, she decided to turn the attention away from Spike the best she could. "Anya, how was business at the Magic Box today?"

That's all it took. Anya broke from her fascination with Spike, when she realized that someone was asking her about her favorite subject: money. Anya was never a wallflower when it came to the discussion of money, she could give a keynote address. It was that simple question that sent Anya in long tirade against the concept of window shopping and the need to stamp it out.

"I cannot believe that practice is actually condoned. It seems to me that it is, at least, just common courtesy to buy something in a shop that you enter. It is like showing up for a dinner party and not bringing a bottle of wine. It's just plain rude. I don't know how the Founding Fathers ever put up with such a thing. It's the kinda thing that you should write your congressman about. How on earth is the economy supposed to improve, if no one is willing to separate from their money? It's absolutely un-American." Anya fumed. "Immoral, that's what it is."

"Wow, Anya, tell us how you really feel." Xander joked, as he gave her a friendly squeeze around the waist. "That's my girl! Trying to improve America's morality, one dollar at a time."

Blocking out the ex-demon's diatribe regarding Sunnydale's shopping community, Giles studied the vampire across from him. He was particularly interested in what had happened to the vampire after he disappeared in the portal. Hearing that Spike's hair was now naturally white was indeed interesting. In humans, a harrowing experience can make the hair become white. He couldn't imagine the degree of an ordeal that a vampire would have to go through to achieve that effect. His eyes traveled over the Spike's form, noting the spiritless hunched posture as he sat next to Dawn. Where was the swaggering brash vampire of a few months ago? To casually look at Spike, one would think that the vampire was not responsive. However, on closer inspection, Giles noted that Spike seemed timid to respond to anyone with the exception of Dawn. She was the only one with whom he willingly had interaction.

As the conversation sputtered to a halt again, as everyone watched Spike's eyes begin to rise from the rug he found so fascinating. Spike seemed to be taking in the room as his unneeded breath quickened. Spike turned his head toward the entrance, then his eyes traveled over the ceiling and then over to the fireplace. It gave him the impression of a little boy at church examining the stain glass windows during a lengthy sermon. Giles could see an awareness click behind his eyes. The vampire blinked his eyes several times and now looked around at the people surrounding him, as if he was looking for someone in particular. Everyone became silent as they watched the vampire. Dawn shifted around on the sofa a little bit, so she could put her arm behind Spike.

"Spike? Is there something you wanted?" Dawn asked, gently as she leaned toward Spike.

The vampire's eyes searched the room again with pained eyes, desperately flitting around the room. A few beats later, Spike asked

"Joyce?"

"Oh, Spike. She's gone. She died last year." Dawn said, surprising herself with the ease that it came out. It seemed that having Spike returned to her fortified her spirit, so she was able to say her mother's death without the intense degree of pain that usually accompanied it.

"Oh. Oh, right. Right." Spike said, twisting his mouth to a corner as he sank back a bit. He did not move for several seconds before he twisted his head to her and guiltily whispered. "Sorry."

"It's alright, Spike. Dawn said as she smoothed the side of his head with her hand. "We all still miss her. I am sure she would be glad to see you're back."

Spike gave a slight nod as his eyes flitted up to look at Dawn out of the corner of his eye for a moment.

"Spike, do you remember us?" Tara asked as she leaned forward slightly. "It is alright if you don't."

"I remember." Spike uttered, tightening the grip on his hands and not looking at Tara.

The sound of the doorbell cut through the silence catching everyone off guard. With a gasp, Buffy stood up from the arm of the sofa where she had been sitting, watching the scene unravel in the living room.

"Oh, my gosh! I forgot I ordered pizza. I hope everyone is hungry." As she dashed toward the front entry. A few minutes later, she returned with several large pizza boxes stacked in her arms.

"Come on, everyone!" She called as she moved toward the breakfast table, toting the pizza boxes.

The call of pizza seemed to clear everyone out of the living room with the exception of Dawn, Spike and Giles. Giles had not moved from the chair and seemed to be pondering his next action about the vampire in front of him.

"Dawn, I was wondering if I could speak to Spike alone." Giles asked, his eyes never leaving the vampire who hadn't moved.

"I don't know, Giles. This has already been quite a day for him." Dawn answered as she looked from Spike to Giles. "Maybe, tomorrow…"

"I promise I won't tire him. It is just a few questions." Giles countered, still pressing for time with the vampire as Buffy returned to the living room to fetch them.

"Spike, do you feel up to answering a few questions for Giles?" Dawn turned to ask the vampire directly. She leaned in toward Spike and whispered. "It is okay, if you don't want to."

Spike looked away from Dawn and then over to Giles. He slowly nodded.

"Good! Now that's all settled. Come on, Dawn. You can grab some pizza while the boys are talking." Buffy announced, standing there with her hands on her hips, looking at her little sister expectantly.

"I am going to stay here. Maybe, you could save me a couple slices? Okay?" Dawn said with a look in her eyes that echoed a stubborn finality as she looked at Buffy.

"Oh come on, Dawn. It is not like Giles is going to thrash him or anything." Buffy said as she leaned over and grabbed her sister's arm to pull her away from the couch. "I am sure Giles is going to be extremely careful with Spike. It's only a few questions. You can come grab a piece of pizza and watch from over there if you're so worried. "

"Dawn, I give you my solemn promise that I won't do anything to distress Spike any further." Giles promised Dawn as she paused by his chair.

"Well..Spike, I am going to be just over there. Okay?" Dawn said, turning back to the vampire and pointing to a spot not too far way. Spike raised his head and looked up at Dawn. "Just look at me and I'll come right back."

"Really, Dawn. Do you have to be that dramatic? You make Giles sound like the scary Nazi interrogator with the large scar running down his face." Buffy said, as she patted her sister's back as Dawn made her way toward the pizza.

"You don't have a scar, do you ,Giles?" Buffy joked as she winked at the watcher over her shoulder as she too went to go get pizza.

Dawn marched over to the table and pulled out a large slice of pizza from the closest box. With her hand balancing the pizza, she moved to a corner of the room where she could watch Giles and Spike. Her protective instincts were ablaze as she jammed the corner of the pizza slice into her mouth.

"Ugh! Who ordered the meatball, pineapple and anchovy pizza?" Dawn announced as she wrinkled her face as she stared at the pizza in her hand.

"Oh, that's Xander's. You're the first person I've ever seen willingly take a piece of it besides him." Willow commented pulling a slice of veggie pizza away from her mouth

"Oh, come on! It is like a fine wine! You gotta let it breathe" Xander said, taking offense at the slur of his favorite pizza combination. "You just don't know what you're missing. It is a multi layered flavor explosion"

"I do. I obviously have regrets." Dawn moaned as she suddenly dashed toward the sink to rinse out her mouth. "Oh Lord, the taste is coming back!"

"Xander, you shouldn't leave that out where anyone could just get a hold of it." Tara lectured the construction worker as she gave Dawn a compassionate look over her shoulder.

"Somethings are never appreciated in their own time." Xander extolled to the room as he happily pulled another piece of the said pizza.

….

Giles got up slowly from his chair and walked around the coffee table to sit on the sofa. He gingerly sat down a few feet away from Spike who had not moved. He leaned slightly forward toward the vampire who did not look up at him.

"Spike? I just have a few questions." Giles slowly asked, his voice low and soothing, so not to agitate the distressed vampire.

There was no movement on the part of the vampire. Giles wasn't sure that Spike had heard him. He was very surprised that a few beats later, Spike turned his head slightly away and gave a slight nod.

"Spike, do you know who I am?" Giles peered over at the vampire waiting for a response. He wanted to get a baseline started on which to build the more intense questions that he planned.

"W..Watcher." Spike stuttered as he looked down at the rug again.

"Do you remember what a Watcher is?" Giles asked, trying to measure Spike's cognition of the situation.

Spike nodded.

"Spike, do you remember the battle with Glory?" Giles decided to start with simple basic questions of the most recent events.

Spike nodded and fidgeted with his fingers again.

"Do you remember what happened on the tower?" Giles asked, tying to curry a more complete response.

There was no response from the vampire. Giles wrinkled his brow as he studied the vampire. Finally seeing no response was forthcoming, he decided to prompt him to get him to reply.

"Spike, during the battle, you went up the tower to rescue Dawn. Do you remember?" Giles stated expectantly. He pulled off his glasses and started to clean them, as he waited for Spike to respond.

He was surprised to see Spike twist his mouth in emotion as the vampire sat there. He knew that Spike was a unique being, but he had never witnessed a vampire express sadness or remorse. Sure, Spike was always spouting off that he loved Buffy, but that wasn't to be believed. It was never documented that vampires had access to a full range of emotions. It was an accepted fact that the Council considered vampires to only be associated with the lower base emotions such as anger and revenge. This vampire seemed to be disproving those theories. He could hear a choking sound before Spike cleared his throat. Giles was sitting there, fixated on watching the vampire that he almost missed it. It was so low, that it barely carried to the end oe sofa. Spike brokenly whispered.

"Too late. Blood flowing."

Giles was surprised that Spike had actually spoken a few words strung together, he almost dropped glasses to study the vampire.

"Yes, that's right. Dawn was cut." Giles stated, calmly.

"My fault." Spike confessed as he turned his head to look toward the fireplace away from Giles.

"What do you mean?" Giles asked, wrinkling his brow and cocking his head as he looked at Spike.

"Should have been quicker." Spike wrapped his arms around his torso and bent forward as he started to speak to himself. "No time."

"Spike, I don't understand." Giles exclaimed, confused by the vampire's reaction.

"Promise to a lady." Spike muttered as his voice seemed to carry a slight pitch of hysteria.

"What? Spike, tell me what you're talking about." Giles said as he sat up a little straighter.

"Had to..Had to." Spike continued the litany to himself. "Don't think. Do it."

"You had to what?" Giles said, looking over to the table to see if Dawn was watching. Giles expected her to come marching over and end the interview any second. Luckily, she was nowhere in sight.

"Had to…bite." Spike gasped as his hand came up shakily to his head.

"Yes, you bit Dawn." Giles confirmed as he looked at the vampire. "Your chip! Your chip should have gone off. Did it?"

"Pain, pain, pain. Keep biting." Spike said, holding his head as he rocked forward.

"If it fired, it must have been excruciating." Giles sounded surprised as realized the cost the vampire had paid in those moments up in the tower to save Dawn.

"Had to. Had to bite. No time. Protect her. Till end of ..world." Spike explained, sounding as if he was explaining it to himself.

"My God." Giles breathed as he bounced the earpiece of his glasses against his lower lip and looked away from the vampire.

"I remember." Spike said with almost an air of achievement. He tilted his head over at Giles and asked. "Bit's alright, yeah? "

"Yes, she's fine." Giles stated, putting his glasses back on.

Spike's hand suddenly flashed across the sofa, capturing Giles' wrist. Giles jumped as he felt the steel grip enclose his wrist. He looked up at Spike whose eyes were now focused on Giles.

"You're here?" Spike simply asked, looking for confirmation.

"Yes, Spike. I'm here." Giles answered as he peered at the vampire in confusion.

"How..How long?" Spike asked as he struggled to get the question out.

"What? How long were you gone?" Giles asked, perplexed as he looked at the vampire.

Spike nodded

"Let's see it. It was almost April and it is September now. So I would say it about a little over 5 months, about 21 weeks. 147 days." Giles answered as he computed the numbers in his head. "How long was it for you?"

"Longer."


	8. Chapter 8

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 8

"Hey, What's goin on?"

Dawn asked with a strained cheerfulness which rang hollowly through the air as she suddenly appeared by the sofa. Although Dawn may have possessed the physical appearance of a young teenage girl, her eyes told a different story as she loomed over the pair on the couch. Spike did not look up, but kept his eyes on the floor in front of him. Dawn fixed her eyes on Giles with such fierceness that the Watcher actually felt intimidated under her glare.

A few moments earlier, Dawn had managed to rinse the taste of Xander's pizza out of her mouth and made her way back to the spot where she could spy on Giles and Spike. By the time she had returned to her station where she could see the couch, she noticed Spike holding Giles' wrist. Alarm bells went off in her head, as her protective instincts surged forward regarding the fragile vampire. What was Giles doing? Was he trying to harm Spike? Certain promises had been made to her and if they were not being kept, they were going to have to deal with her. She immediately stormed over to the sofa to investigate.

"Oh. Yes." Giles sputtered as he dragged his eyes away from Dawn while trying to disengage his wrist from the vampire's grip. "Spike and I were just having a discussion on how long he's been gone."

"Uh huh." Dawn grunted skeptically as she looked back and forth between the two men sitting on the couch. Sniffing, Giles straightened his back and pulled off his glasses. In an effort to collect himself, he began to hurriedly clean them under Dawn's intense gaze.

"I think you're done for now. Come on, Spike. Let's go get you some more blood." Dawn slowly stated as she moved over to Spike. Bending over, she locked her two hands under Spike's bicep and pulled him upwards. Spike resignedly stood in deference to the young teenager's will. Taking a step back, Dawn guided Spike around the coffee table. She kept her hand wrapped around the vampire's arm as he ungainly shuffled next to her. As the pair moved past Giles, Dawn's eyes flitted over to give the watcher a not too subtle warning with her eyes.

Spellbound, Giles watched the unlikely pair navigate their way through the entry way back to the kitchen. Before he could pull his eyes away, he felt the sofa bend to a new pressure of someone sitting next to him. Blinking rapidly as he broke out of his trance, he turned his head to see who was next to him on the sofa.

"So, were you able to dig up any earth shattering info on Dawn's pet project?" Buffy said with a sigh as she bounced against the couch next to Giles. She then leaned over to also watch the Dawn and Spike make their way back to the kitchen.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to conduct a thorough interview. He seems to be rather fragile state, so I didn't want to press." Giles answered, as he looked back to the pair making slow progress.

"It is really freaky to see him this way. He was always so boisterous." Buffy commented as she gazed at the vampire walking next to her little sister. "Now, he's so tentative."

"It is quite extraordinary. Uncertainty in a vampire that is indeed odd. I don't perceive how that is even possible. It goes totally against universally accepted concepts of standard vampiric nature." Giles expounded as he contemplated the vampire's behavior that evening. Bouncing the earpiece against his lip, Giles leaned over to Buffy. "I would like to interview him again when things have become a bit more settled."

"Maybe, something can be arranged when his personal bodyguard has to go back to school on Monday." Buffy muttered shrugging. "He may be back more to his old self. He should be in his crypt by then."

"By then? So, he is not returning to his crypt tonight? Is he staying here?" Giles asked, quickly replacing his glasses on his face and peering over at the Slayer. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Really tried to come up with some other alternatives, but it was the only way I could pry Dawn out of his crypt." Buffy explained as she rolled her eyes. "She has gone into full-blown vampire rehab mode. It was either promise her that he could stay the weekend here at the house, or set up housekeeping in the cemetery. The second is so not happening!"

"Buffy, Spike does not seem to pose an immediate threat, but he seems to be rather unstable. He could easily become dangerous." Giles warned.

"Other than a few awkward crying jags, he really hasn't been exhibiting too much of a threat. It's been uncomfortable, yeah...but nothing unmanageable." Buffy explained. Shrugging her shoulders, she added. "Besides, I am sticking like glue to them and keeping a few stakes handy. He wouldn't dare try anything."

"Has he said anything to you about where he's been?" Giles leaned over to Buffy as he lowered his voice

"He really hasn't been too much into the deep long winded discussions. I can't really blame him. He only started reacting to us in the last eight hours." Buffy commented and then jokingly added. "Maybe, Willow could channel Oprah to perform one of those deep insightful interviews."

"Speaking of interviews, there was one thing I found surprising from our short discussion. He seems to blame himself for the portal opening." Giles remarked, as he reflected on the results of his conversation with Spike.

"What? He couldn't have prevented that!" Buffy declared aghast. "We all know that he did all that was possible to save Dawn. If he hadn't thrown himself in the portal, we would have lost her."

"Indeed; however, he seems to be blaming himself from preventing the portal to even open." Giles intoned as he shook in his head in bewilderment.

"Why would he blame himself? We were all fighting Glory and minions. He ran up the tower when Willow provided the opportunity to get past Glory's defenses." Buffy argued. "He couldn't have gotten there any faster."

"I am not sure. He may not be remembering it correctly. He may be dealing with some long lasting damage from the chip. It seems that he persevered through the pain of the chip's firing to bite Dawn." Giles said and went on to ponder. "It must have been excruciating."

"He what? I didn't even think about the chip!" Buffy softly exclaimed under her breath.

"Do you have any idea why he would do such a thing?" Giles inquired as he looked at the Slayer sitting next to him

"Oh, my gosh! I do. Before we left for the tower… When we came back here for weapons..I made him promise to protect Dawn." Buffy exhaled as she put a hand through her hair.

"A promise? A promise from a vampire?" Giles queried. "I would think a vampire would be the least likely candidate to keep a promise. I would think it would have been another one of his games."

"Remember last year, when he was going around protesting that he loved me. I know I sure didn't believe him. In fact, all of us didn't think he had the capacity to love in him. You know, the whole vampire, no soul, can't love thing." Buffy paused and then went on to say. "That's why he surprised us all when he didn't betray his knowledge about Dawn being the key, even though Glory was torturing him. I guess there's a lot more to Spike, than any of us every perceived."

"Tell me more about this promise." Giles prompted the young woman as he fixed his glasses on his face.

"Yeah, it was just before we were all heading to the tower to fight Glory. I was pretty sure we were all going to our deaths that night and I asked him to protect Dawn. I remember him looking up at me and saying he would until the end of the world, even if it was going to be that night." Buffy sighed and looked down at her lap. "He went on to say that I didn't treat him like a monster. He said I treated him like a man and then he couldn't go on. I had no idea he would take it that far."

"For a vampire, Spike was always unusual." Giles commented. "He's the only vampire that I've ever heard of eating human food. He went through a number of boxes of Wheatabix when he was staying with me after he escaped from the Initiative. I suspect there are other surprising facets about him that we refused to recognize. "

"My god. I never considered...it was so easy to fall into old habits with him. I mean he's a vampire. You know…evil." Buffy confided to the watcher. "Do you really think he blames himself?

"Who's to say? Sometimes blame is not logical, but it weighs just as heavy. He currently seems to be carrying a lot of pain." Giles commented as he turned his head toward the kitchen once again. "One odd thing, I noticed that he needs to be reassured that we're real. "

"Yeah, he did that to me too. What do you think it means?" Buffy asked, as she cocked her head in puzzlement.

"It's curious. I am not sure." The watcher pondered as he contemplated the vampire.

…..

Taking a step in front of him to guide him over to the breakfast table, Dawn pulled out a chair from the end of the table. She gently dragged Spike over by the arm and pushed him into the chair that was bookended on each side by Tara and Willow.

"Wait here. I'll be just a minute with your blood." Dawn took a step back from Spike's chair but before she turned to go to the microwave, she raised her eyebrows and gestured behind Spike's back to Willow and Tara. She mouthed the words 'TALK TO HIM!' to the women.

A small sigh escaped Spike's lips as he sat back in the chair. He kept his eyes on the edge of the table in front of him as he waited for Dawn to return. Hesitantly, he brought his eyes up to regard the other people at the table. Looking up, he became aware that everyone was watching him. He uncomfortably lowered his eyes and looked at his hands folded in his lap.

With a compassionate smile at the corner of her mouth, Tara gazed at the broken vampire sitting at the end of the table. Her eyes traveled over his form noting the pain, fear and doubt that flowed from the vampire.

"Spike. It's so good to see you." Tara's voice calmly crooned to the vampire as she stretched out a hand toward him on the table.

Willow was shocked to see the vampire's eyes dart up to look at Tara and then be cast down back at this hands. Sudden harsher breathing began to shake the vampire's chest. He pulled in his lower lip as he looked away as his body tensed. It seemed that the vampire was fighting the impulse to flee. He only able to remain seated there by sheer will.

"Uh. Yeah." Spike's response was barely audible as he began to clutch his hand so hard that his fingers dug into the back of the opposite hand.

Willow and Tara exchanged looks of concern at each other and became silent in deference to the vampire's struggle. Willow sat up a little more in her chair as she desperately struggled to think of a non aggravating topic.

"So, Spike, how's the crypt?" Willow asked, making her best effort to make the question sound breezily, but failing miserably.

Spike blinked a couple of times in puzzlement and then shrugged without looking up.

"Oh, that's good." Willow said as she looked over at Tara to give an uncomfortable mixture of a grimace and a smile. Not being able to think of another topic, Willow then focused her attention on toying with the pizza on her plate in front of her.

A few minutes later, Dawn came back to the table, carefully balancing a mug of warm blood fresh from the microwave between her hands. She gingerly set it down in front of the Spike on the table and stood back proudly to regard the offering in front of Spike.

"Here ya go! I want to see you drink all of that down. We got to fatten you up." Dawn commanded maternally and pulling at Spike's arm playfully. Looking down at the pizza boxes on the table, she asked. "Did you want any pizza? Hey, Xander, did you leave us any pizza?" Dawn directed her question to the other end of the table as she raised her eyebrows for him to lighten the mood.

Suddenly becoming aware of the question being directed to him, Xander started and answered with a somewhat artificial enthusiasm: "Yeah. Sure. Yeah! Spike, help yourself to some pizza."

Looking over at his girlfriend who still seemed entranced by the state of the vampire, Xander nudged Anya with his elbow. Anya staggered and made a sound of surprise, becoming aware of the awkward silence that surrounded the table. Taking a hint from Xander, she hurriedly joined in the conversation.

"Uh. Spike, dig in. There's plenty..." Anya said, flashing a small grin at Spike. Tilting her head, she announced quite loudly "Spike, maybe you would want to go out later to the Bronze for a beer or something stronger? You know, get back the old mojo working again!"

"Maybe in a few nights, I just want to get Spike back on his feet again." Dawn responded with finality as she was moving down the table while opening up the pizza boxes to investigate what pizza was remaining.

"I think Spike should make up his own mind. He looks like he could use a drink." Anya argued as she looked at the teenage girl across the table. "You know, he's an adult. In fact, he's old enough to be several adults."

"Look, Spike just needs some time to rest. There'll be plenty of time for Bronze later." Dawn countered, clearly becoming irritated with the ex-demon.

Oh, that's because you're too young to have a really good time." Anya said condescendingly. Suddenly a conversation about what a really good time meant developed between the two women at the table. Xander looked to the ceiling, realizing that any input from him would only make the situation worse.

As Tara was sitting there, she noticed that Spike suddenly became very still as he slightly turned his head as if he heard something. He then slowly wrapped his arms around his torso as he sat with the mug untouched in front of him. As the conversation continued about the Bronze, Tara noticed the blonde vampire lift his head and study each individual around at the table. As Giles and Buffy rejoined the group, Tara noted it was if Spike was memorizing the scene. At a lull in the conversation, Dawn looked back at Spike and sobered as she saw the expression in Spike's eyes. Leaving the pizza boxes, she made her way back toward him.

"I'm here? Everyone's here?" Spike spoke so softly that Dawn had to bend down to hear him. "Sometimes, it is not real."

"Yes. We're all here. It's real." Dawn affirmed. She looked briefly back over her shoulder at the stunned group behind her.

"Everyone." Spike asked hopefully, like a being offered a treasure. "Everyone's okay?"

"Yes, we're fine." Dawn answered, putting her hand on Spike's neck and letting it rest in the nook created by his shoulder.

"It's real. That's good. Makes it worth it." Spike murmured to himself as tilted his head sadly to look at Dawn hovering in front of him. He reached up to touch the end of a piece of Dawn's hair that was hanging down in front of her. He concentrated on the feeling of letting the piece of hair run over his fingertips as it slipped through.

"What are you talking about, Spike?" Dawn asked softly.

"I have to remember." Pulling his eyes away from the piece of hair, Spike confessed as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"What? Remember what?" Dawn asked a little more sharply, clearly becoming frightened for her friend. Spike's mouth pulled into a fragile smile as he added.

"Remember this when they come to take me back."


	9. Chapter 9

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 9

As Spike's statement floated over the air in the Summer's breakfast area, an unnatural quiet settled over the room. In response, everyone looked nervously at one another. Buffy leaned over to Giles, who raises his hand to stem her question as he leaned forward to listen to Dawn and Spike. Buffy frowned as she waited, stifled by Giles' hand from discussing the ramifications of Spike's last comment. When the waiting for Spike's next comment had become too tiresome, Buffy decided to take action.

"Spike, who's going to take you back?" Buffy's voice brashly interjected as she took a step behind Dawn to peer around her sister. "Is something dangerous after you? If you put Dawn in danger again, I am going to beat you so hard, you're gonna think that episode with Glory was just a kiddie ride at the fair."

Dawn straightened and looked back over her shoulder at her sister, her irritation clearly displayed to all in the room.

"Buffy!" Dawn snapped at her sister. "Would you stop?"

Dawn gave her sister such a hard look, that Buffy knew she had better keep her mouth shut. Looking around to the adults in the room, she was shocked to see similar expressions on their faces. Buffy cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably on her feet.

"Dawn, see if you can get Spike to tell us more about who's coming." Giles prompted, looking around Buffy whose face looked like a thundercloud.

Dawn turned her head back to Spike and, taking a deep breath, she tried to recreate the atmosphere between them before Buffy had interrupted. She smiled gently at Spike as she gently laid her hand on his arm.

"Spike, it's alright. You can tell me." Dawn stated as she repeatedly smoothed her hand down Spike's forearm. "Who is coming to take you back?"

At the sound of Buffy's voice, Spike had pressed his lips together and looked away. He looked down as he closed his arms around him in agitation as Dawn laid her hand on his arm. He looked briefly back at Dawn and slowly made a broken sound of "SHHHH" as he could not maintain eye contact with her. He shut his eyes and turned his head away.

"Spike, please." Dawn pleaded, her voice becoming anxious as she went down on her knees beside the vampire's chair. "Please tell me."

Spike slightly raised his head to look up at Dawn with an unsettling calm in his eyes. "Doesn't matter, pet. I won't put up a fuss."

"Spike, I'm not going to let them take you back. You're back home with us now." Dawn said as she grabbed Spike's hand with both of her own. "I won't let them."

Spike's eyes did not register the comfort she was offering, as he continued to sit there unmoving and silent, staring at the floor. Dawn turned back to the Scoobies, looking for help, the distress on her face plainly visible.

"Dawn, perhaps it would be better if we let it lie for right now." Giles noted as his eyes went from Dawn to the vampire in the chair. "I don't think getting upset is going to do anyone any good."

Nodding, Dawn took a step away while trying to contain her ragged breathing. Saying nothing, Buffy placed her arm around her sister as she came closer. Taking a moment, Dawn looked back at the vampire, once she had calmed down slightly.

"I am not going to let anyone take you away, Spike." Dawn declared with such vivid certainty that Scoobies all turned their eyes to her. "They're going to have to go through me and I'm not budging!"

"It won't matter. Payment is past due and they've come knocking..." Spike muttered as he stared at the floor. "Said too much. No more talking."

For the rest of the evening, the mood remained uncertain as everyone's eyes traveled back to the vampire. Dawn sat next to him encouraging him to drink the blood in the mug she had set in front of him. She had pulled up a chair next to him, so she could balance her hand on the back of his chair. All her attention was focused on the reclusive vampire. The mug sat on the table in front of him untouched.

As midnight came and went, Giles, Xander and Anya said their awkward goodnights as they kept glancing to the vampire and the girl sitting at the table. As they left the house, each stated their intention to return the next day. Giles whispered to Buffy his concern about the vampire, but she nodded and patted him on the back signaling that everything had been taken care of.

…..

It was several hours later after everyone had gone to bed that Tara crept quietly into the kitchen for a glass of milk. Unlike Willow who had no trouble dropping off to sleep, Tara had not been able to relax enough to go to sleep. She pulled her mouth back in a grimace as she tried to walk as carefully as she could in order not to disturb the vampire in the basement.

Dawn had begrudgingly put the vampire in the basement at Buffy's insistence. Although Dawn had wanted to put the vampire on the sofa, Buffy used the fact that sunlight would be pouring on the vampire in the morning as the foundation of her argument that Spike belonged in the basement. Dawn reluctantly led Spike down to the army cot the girls had set up for him in the basement. After getting a nod from the vampire promising that he would be there in the morning, Dawn went upstairs to bed.

It was no wonder that Tara had difficulty going to sleep that night; Spike's pain was absolutely tactile to the young empathetic witch. It wore on her so that she was unable to get her mind to relax enough so she could go to sleep. She had spent the last hour tossing next to Willow, who remained steadfastly undisturbed by Tara's calisthenics next to her. Finally giving up, Tara decided that she would go downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of milk. After replacing the jug of milk back in the refrigerator, Tara turned to pick up the glass of milk from the island. As she turned, something unusual caught her eye through the glass panel on the door. Hesitantly creeping up to the door, Tara peered through the glass to see a figure sitting on the edge of the porch, looking up at the sky.

"Spike?" Quietly opening the door, Tara's voice gently calls out. "What are you doing out here?"

No answer came from the vampire. Seeing the innate loneliness in his posture, Tara felt compassion for the tortured being sitting alone on the edge of the back porch.

"Is it okay if I sit with you?" Tara asked as she carefully pulled the back door closed behind her.

Still no answer came from the vampire. A moment later, Spike turned his head away and gave a small nod. Tara swiftly padded over to the edge of the porch to sit a few feet away from him. For a couple of minutes neither spoke as they sat quietly on the porch. Tara watched the vampire as he stared at the sky. Eventually, following his line of sight, her eyes also went up to the stars.

"It's a lovely night, isn't it?" Tara comments as her gentle voice carries like a soft breeze to the vampire.

"Stars." Spike murmured as if he had rediscovered an old favorite toy from the back of the closet.

"Yeah, you can really see them tonight." Tara commented as she looked back down from the sky to the vampire sitting a few feet away.

"Dru… Dru used to say they talked to her." Spike said, his eyes never leaving the sky.

"Really? What did they say to her?" Tara asked, tilting her head with a gentle expression on her face.

"Mostly nonsense; b...but nice, you know." Spike slightly stammered as he eyes flitted over to her for a moment.

"Yeah, I can understand that." Tara commented and sighed. "It's nice to think that someone is watching over us."

"They're like little pinpricks." Spike said as he tilted his head. Then becoming aware of Tara, he cleared his throat slightly, looking down and admitted. "Don't see them regular."

"Are there no stars where you've been?" Tara asked, as casually as she could.

"Don...Don't know." Spike answered. He then paused and added with a small shrug. "Don't see much."

"Spike, where you've been…I know it's bad." Tara whispered to him.

"You m...manage to suss that out all on your own, pet?" Spike pulled his eyes from the stars down to his hands.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Tara asked as she offered her ear to the vampire.

Spike shakes his head as he does not move his eyes from his hands.

"Okay. We'll just sit here and look at the stars." Tara said without judgment in her tone.

Quiet settled between the two before one of them said anything.

"Thank you." Spike's voice carried over to the witch.

"For what?" Tara asked.

"Letting it be." Spike sighed, as if a great pressure had been taken off him.

"No problem..." Tara acknowledged with a small grin at the vampire.

She slowly moved over closer to the vampire and gently pulled one of Spike's hands over to her. Holding his hand palm up, Tara traced a blessing on his palm and said a few words. Spike watched the witch as she places her hand over his. Raising his eyes to look in her face, she can see his puzzled expression.

"I just asked someone to watch after you." Tara gently closes Spike's palm with her two hands. Spike's eyes momentarily clear and he tilts his head as he looks at her. It was like the old Spike peaked out for an instant and then it was gone again.

"I'm a demon, luv. Don...don't merit help." Spike muttered as he looked back down.

"Shush. My friends do." Tara said as she placed his arm back across his bended knee. "I know what I'm doing."

"You can't consider me…a friend?" Spike uttered in disbelief.

"Yes, I do. Ever since you punched me in the nose and risked hurting yourself." Tara smiled as ducked her head to catch the vampire's eye as she continued. "I never really thanked you for that."

Spike stared at Tara in silence for a few slow seconds. He then slowly retreated back from Tara as he leaned away from her. He started shaking his head as he shut his eyes closed as emotion started to well up in him.

"Shouldn't ...Don't say that." Spike coached himself as he pulled a hand to his forehead and then closing it into a fist that he held there. The back of his fingers pressing into his forehead as he bent his head down.

Tara tilted her head as she watched the vampire wrestle with the impact of what she had just said.

"Spike…" Tara softly entreated the vampire.

"Don't give me anything!" Spike's voice carried the ragged plea as he continued to sit there, unmoving. "It will hurt less when they will take it from me."

"Please, Spike, we're here with you now. You're not going back." Tara tried to comfort the distraught vampire. "Even if they come, we won't let them take you."

"Hands like hammers. Fingers like knives. You try…try to resist. No use. They put you in your place, they do." Spike rambled as he pulled his fist down and clasped it with his other as he rested his elbows on his knees as he tried to collect himself. Then with a breathless laugh, tilting his head toward Tara, he added. "Out of sight, out of mind. Isn't it poetic? Blighted says Mrs Lytton; but I think she understates."

"Who's Mrs. Lytton?" Tara asked, not getting the jest as her face wrinkled in confusion

"Time is slipping. Sometimes in weakness, I think I would like to greet the sunrise and escape them." Spike says wistfully looking at the sky. Taking a deep breath, Spike leaned over and confided. "But then who would they take then for payment? Promises to keep, you know.." He sat back and looked back up at the stars dancing overhead..

"Oh, Spike." Tara placed her hand on his shoulder.

Spike froze for a moment as he felt her hand on his shoulder with mild surprise. He continued to sit there, allowing her hand to remain. Emboldened by the acceptance, Tara leaned her head against his shoulder as the pair continued to look up at the night sky.

...

It was late the next morning, when Spike made his appearance again. He had obviously slept in his clothes which provided the evidence by the sheer amount of wrinkles. Buffy, Tara and Willow were sitting around the island in the kitchen. Dawn who had staked out the basement door like a swat team from the living room jumped forward to greet the vampire as he closed the door behind him.

"Good morning, Spike." Dawn stated as she smiled at him, wrapping her arm around his.

"M…morning." Spike quietly responded, still astounded by the amount of good will being aimed toward him by the teenager.

"You have to be starving. Come on in to the kitchen and we'll get you settled." Dawn said as she pulled the vampire to the kitchen.

"Morning, Spike." Willow said as she set down her coffee mug and offered him a small uncomfortable smile.

"Morning." Buffy flatly stated as she was wiping the countertop with a dishrag.

"Morning, Spike." Tara said softly, as she stood to the side of Willow. Her eyes betraying a new understanding between the two of them.

"Mornin." Spike responded as he eyes flitted between the floor and the women.

Wanting to avoid any more untoward Buffy drama, Dawn pulled Spike over the kitchen table and pushed him into a chair as she returned to get him some blood. Dawn presented the mug to Spike and sat across from him as he dutifully consumed it. When the mug was empty, Dawn volunteered to make a refill which Spike declined.

"So, what are you two going to do today? " Buffy asked as she stood by the entrance from the kitchen, wrestling with the dish towel between her two hands.

"I thought we would just hang around the house today." Dawn responded, looking to the ceiling at her sister's comment. "You know, veg in front of the TV."

"Just to let you know, Giles should be here pretty soon." Buffy stated as she turned to go back into the kitchen. "Oh, by the way, if you want to add anything to the grocery list, I am going to the store this afternoon."

"I'm fine." Dawn called after her sister. "Spike, is there anything you want?"

Spike who kept his eyes on the mug in front of him, almost imperceptive shook his head. Spike slowly got up from the table and walked over to the hallway by the basement door. The four women in the kitchen followed him with their eyes. He turned back to look back at them with a longing in his eyes as if he was about to say something.

Suddenly he was flung back against the wall. Then he was bashed in the wall in front of him as the air was expelled from his lungs. He was instantly flung back against the opposite wall as he seemed to struggle for breath. As he gasped, his arms seemed to be drawn up and pressed over his chest as he fought against an unseen enemy.

"SPIKE!" Dawn called as she flew up from the table to try to reach the vampire. Tara, Willow and Buffy stood frozen as their eyes watched the vampire's battle. As her eye caught the movement from her sister, Buffy flew into action when she saw her sister tear across the kitchen to get to the vampire. Running around the island to halt her sister's progress, Buffy caught her sister midway in the kitchen and held her back by wrapping her arms around her.

As Dawn struggled to pry Buffy's arm in the middle of the kitchen, she screamed when she saw Spike disappear.


	10. Chapter 10

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 10

Spike knew they were close when he awoke that morning in the Summers' basement. When he first heard the voices last night, they were just a murmur. Now with the morning sun, he could definitely make out words being said. The voices were becoming louder and more insistent. They were coming to get him. It would not be long until his sojourn here with the Scoobies would come to an end. He slowly climbed up the stairs to the ground level, taking each step with finality, knowing that he may never return. He paused for a moment as he took an unneeded breath before he turned the knob to open the door. As he placed his hand on the cool metal of the knob, he pulled up his chin as he went to brave the last moments he would have with them.

…

Giles was casually walking up the walkway to Buffy's front door, when he heard Dawn's scream. He charged up the walkway and burst through the door. Breathless, he paused by the door, his eyes searching for the source of the scream. Finally, his eyes fixed on Dawn and Buffy struggling in the kitchen.

Dawn managed to pry Buffy's arms from around her and flew to the spot in the hallway to the kitchen where Spike had disappeared. She halted just before the spot. She brought her hands up in front of her and cautiously approached the spot where Spike had last been seen. Her hands floated in the air in front of her as she moved forward.

"NO!" Dawn's guttural scream cut through the air as her hands landed on the wall behind the spot where Spike had last been standing. She took a step closer and hid her face in the crook of her arm as she broke into tears as she muttered. "No..no…no."

Giles watched as Buffy stood in the kitchen for a moment, breathing hard as she watched her sister in the hallway. Willow and Tara stood behind her unmoving from their spots in the kitchen. Willow's mouth was open in shock as she still held the mug in front her. Tara's eyes filled with tears, pulling in the lips of her mouth in compassion as she felt the impact of Dawn's anguish.

"Spike!" Dawn moaned as she slid down the wall as her sobs began to shake her body. "I told him I wouldn't let them take him. I told him. I told him."

Seeing her sister's distress, Buffy quietly moved closer to Dawn and kneeling, wrapped her in her arms. Dawn leaned toward her sister, her fingers pressed into Buffy's forearm as she grasped it. Buffy's other hand came up to smooth the back of Dawn's head.

"Dawn, Buffy…What happened?" Giles asked as his puzzled eyes went from the sisters huddled on the floor to the women standing stock still in the kitchen.

Willow finally broke her trance, blinking sporadically as she turned her head to look at the mug in her hand. She set it down and looked over to Giles as she stood up from the stool. Tara took a few steps away from Tara, her hand over her mouth as she stared at the spot where Spike was last seen.

"Um...Giles…Spike was...there … then…wasn't… A lot happened, okay?" Willow stammered as she tried unsuccessfully to put a coherent statement about the recent events.

"Something happened with Spike?" Giles asked as his eyes went from the witch down to the two sisters huddled together on the floor. "Is everyone okay?"

Buffy turned her head over her shoulder as she held her sobbing sister; she looked up at Giles with bewilderment. "We're fine. He didn't do anything to us."

"We gotta get him back. We just can't leave him. I told that I wouldn't allow them to take him back." Dawn pulled back her head and pleaded with Buffy. "We gotta, Buffy."

"It's okay, Dawn." Turning her head to regard her sister, Buffy said as she tried to comfort her sister. "I'm sure there's something we can do."

"Giles!" Dawn turned in Buffy's arms as she directed her plea toward the watcher. "Giles, we gotta help him! You saw him last night. We just can't let them have him."

"Certainly, Dawn." Giles answered as he looked worriedly at the young woman. "But I still don't understand what exactly happened."

…

A little later, the group had moved into the living room. Buffy was sitting next to Dawn on the sofa with her arms still around her sister. Dawn was sitting on the far end of the sofa; her body seemingly huddled from pain as she was unsuccessfully sniffing back tears. Willow was sitting defeated in one of the chairs across from them while Tara had positioned herself on one of the sofa's arms next to Dawn. Tara was exceedingly quiet as she knotted her hands in thought. Giles was pacing back and forth in front of them, reviewing what the young woman had conveyed to him about what happened with Spike.

"Let me understand this." Giles said as he paced with his hands placed at his hips as he leaned forward to wrestle with the facts. "Spike just disappeared?"

The women gazed at the watcher with solemn eyes and nodded as a group. The only one that did not respond was Dawn who brought up a hand to wipe away a tear from the edge of her eye as she continued to look over at the fireplace.

"Did he say anything?" Giles inquired as he appeared to be considering the facts. "Was there any indication that he knew it was going to happen?"

"He was quiet this morning. He did say good morning when he came into the kitchen." Willow offered as she looked briefly at the others on the sofa.

"Did he say anything else?" Giles asked and then turned to the sofa. "Dawn, did he say anything to you?"

"No, he just sat at the table and drank the mug of blood I gave him. He didn't say anything. He just shook his head when we asked him some questions." Dawn said as she gasped, trying to stem her tears.

"What did you ask him?" Giles continued as he peered at young girl.

"Well, first I asked him if he wanted more blood. You know, he's still so thin..." Dawn responded, stopping to take a breath. "And…and then I asked him if he wanted anything from the store. That's about it."

"Are you sure?" Giles inquired very intently.

"Yeah, he was totally quiet." Dawn answered as she took a shaky breath.

"Well, that doesn't help. Tell me: did he do anything unexpected?" Giles asked the group

"Unexpected?" Buffy asked as she cocked her head at the watcher.

"Yes, anything that might lead you to believe that he knew something was going to happen?" Giles asked as he held up a hand to the air.

"Um. Well, he did get up from the table…but that's not unreasonable. People get up from tables all the time." Willow added from her chair, shrugging her shoulders.

"What did he do after that?" Giles asked the witch, fixing his eyes on her as he waited for an answer.

"He walked through the kitchen." Willow answered, looking uncomfortable under such strict observation.

"Did he stop or give any indication of why he did that?" Giles prodded the red haired witch further.

"No, he just walked over to the hallway." Willow said, retreating back against her chair.

"What happened then?" Giles continued to question, as he pondered the situation.

"He…He disappeared." Willow spouted.

"No, anything that might lead you to believe that he knew something was going to happen." Giles queried.

"Yeah, he did." Buffy jumped in. "When he got to the hall, he turned around and looked at us."

"He looked at you? How?" Giles asked the group.

"It was…It was like he was saying goodbye." Dawn blurted as she made a small agonized sound as she placed her hand to her face.

"And then he just disappeared?" Giles asked as he turned his attention to Buffy.

"No, it was like he was being slammed around before he disappeared. He didn't appear to put up any resistance, but it was so violent." Buffy stated, shaking her head at the memory.

"Was he able to say anything?" Giles quietly asked Buffy who was smoothing Dawn's hair.

"No, he was gasping." Buffy looked up from her sister to Giles.

"Gasping?" Giles pondered as he tried to absorb the information. "Why would he gasp? He's a vampire. He doesn't need to breathe."

"I don't know. It sure looked like he couldn't breathe." Buffy commented as she pulled her face into a grimace of confusion.

"Hmm. I wonder.." Giles said as he raised a hand to the back of his neck. "It might be possible that in this other dimension that Spike needs to breathe. It's curious. Breathing is optional to Spike. Did he say anything to anyone about where he's been?"

"He…He spoke to me." Tara's soft voice broke the silence.

"When?" Dawn asked as she turned her head to the soft spoken witch.

"Last night, after everyone had gone to bed, I came down for a glass of milk and found him sitting on the back porch." Tara stated, looking at Dawn.

"What was he doing?" Giles's eyebrows rose as he questioned the young woman sitting on the end of the sofa.

"He was looking at the stars. I sat with him and we spoke." Tara responded, looking slightly abashed.

"What did you talk about?" Giles began grilling the gentle witch for more information.

"Well, we started talking about the stars." Tara stated as she looked away from the people staring at her.

"What about the stars?" Dawn asked, looking up at the witch perched on the sofa's arm.

"He said he hadn't seen stars in a long time." Tara disclosed to the group, with a sigh.

"Why would he say that? Are there no stars where he was?" Giles further inquired.

"I asked him that. He said he didn't know." Tara responded.

"He didn't know? That's curious. Why wouldn't he know if there were stars or not?" Giles thought out loud. "Unless he couldn't see the sky. There must be something keeping him from seeing the sky."

"There was another thing…" Tara interrupted. "He said something about being put in your place. Do you think that means anything?"

"I am not sure. Try to remember anything else he said." Giles prodded.

"Well, he said something. I wasn't sure what he meant that out of sight, out of mind was poetic. He seemed to be kind of upset at the time, so I didn't press. I wasn't sure what he meant." Tara pressed her mouth as she shrugged, noncommittally.

"Poetic? Out of sight, out of mind? Could he have been talking about us? He's been gone for several months and not one of us made any attempt to bring him back." Giles said as he began to pace back and forth again. "If it had been any of the rest of us, I am certain a rescue attempt would have been made by now."

"No, I don't think he was talking about us." Tara objected to Giles' line of thinking. "He was talking about himself. He said he was a demon and didn't merit any help."

"Oh, God! Why are we just sitting around here? We should be up doing something to get him back!" Dawn exclaimed at the group.

"Dawn, I realize this is hard; but do try to control yourself. We have to figure out where to look for him." Giles calmly responded in a low gentle voice. "The only way is to see if he left any clues to where he could have been taken."

"Wait a minute. He said a name." Tara interrupted. "It was something that started with an 'L'."

"What was it?" Giles asked, as all eyes were trained on Tara.

"Come on, honey." Willow prompted. "I know you can do it."

"I'm trying. He chuckled as he said it like it was some internal joke. He said that she had said it was blighted. What was her name?" Tara pressed a hand to her head as she worked to remember.

"Please Tara, think!" Dawn pleaded as she reached over and took Tara's hand.

"It was…Mrs. Lytton!" Tara said triumphantly.

Four pairs of puzzled eyes stared at Tara.

"Who's Mrs. Lytton?"

…

Cold!

Cold!

Cold!

It was the only thing that could register in his mind.

The razor sharp cold cut into him like talons, tearing all conscious thought from him.

It was all around him. It surrounded and engulfed him. It sought him, offering him no respite.

He opened his mouth to scream but it flooded into him. It was in his mouth, in his ears and nose. The icy arctic cold swallowed him as he began to struggle. He couldn't escape. He was fixed in place as if he were a trapped butterfly run through by a collector's pin. Heavy weights like huge stones were pressing on his body, keeping him in the cold. He ineffectually fought against them; his mouth open in an unheard scream, his legs furiously kicking against the force that was holding him there. He found that his arms were held down across his body. It was like they were trapped in a suffocating swaddling embrace that tightened as he struggled. He twisted his body as he tried to free himself; but to no fruition. After one last gigantic effort, his movements became weaker and slower as his body surrendered to his fate.

Just as suddenly, Spike was roughly pulled upright by the weights that left their positions and hooked under him. He was flung up, out of the cold and into a harsh metallic smelling air which resonated with the stench of sickness and filth. He would have fallen on to his face if the heavy weights had not stopped his momentum forward. The weights he had felt turned out to be the rough, callused hands of the two thickset ill-boding men that stood on each side of him. The men held the vampire between them as Spike's legs tried to collapse from beneath him while he coughed up the icy water he had inadvertently swallowed. Each man had a firm hold of the shoulder of the dripping canvas straitjacket Spike was wearing in their large knarled hands. The men's other hands were holding him in place and upright by bracing an elbow in a painful grip. Once his coughing had slowed, Spike began to tremble with the cold as he became aware of more people in the room. A glaring and unforgiving light was shining in his face. The light hurt so that he had to close his eyes as his head fell lifelessly forward as the two men held him vertical.

"As you can see, gentlemen, the shock of the icy water is indeed effective on the patient suffering from episodes of monomania." A cultured voice carried through the hall with an almost insufferably smug tone.

Spike weakly blinked as he saw two well shined black leather shoes walk into his field of vision on the floor. A hand was placed under Spike's chin as his head was slowly raised. As it did, Spike's eyes took in the Victorian gray suit the man was wearing in front of him. Beyond the man, Spike could just make out the raised levels of chairs in a Victorian lecture hall, filled with the primly well dressed men staring at him. He jerkily closed his eyes as he realized where he was.

"Are you with us, Mr. Pratt?" The voice was now directed at him.

"Yes." Spike gasped hopelessly as he opened his eyes to the man asking him the question. Looking back at him expectantly, behind the pince-nez balanced on his nose was the face of Doc.


	11. Chapter 11

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

Author's note: Please respond with reviews on this chapter. Any comment would be appreciated!

…..

Chapter 11

Spike took a quick intake of breath as his bare feet stumbled over a sharp edge of a stone that had slightly jutted up from the rough and uneven floor, causing stinging scrapes along the top of his toes. Upon being dismissed from the lecture hall, the two men had left the smooth and highly polished floors of the institution's educational hospital wing and entered into the older sections that held the decidedly less luxurious cells of the inmates. The attendant was impatient at their progress and roughly pushed his charge in front of him. Spike barely caught himself as the last push had been so particularly vicious that he had to bend at the waist in order to maintain his balance. His deadened arms were still entrapped inside the drenched freezing canvas of the straitjacket. Underneath it, Spike was wearing the soaked thin cotton standard issue hospital gown that clung steadfastly around his torso and upper legs. The freezing water dripped down from the bottom hem of the jacket onto his bare calves causing the nerves to send jangling missives to his overworked brain as he stumbled forward.

The orderly repeatedly forcefully shoved a shivering disorientated Spike forward as they navigated the maze of hallways, each successive hallway becoming increasingly oppressive. The squalid hallways were illuminated with ochre colored light emanating from the sparsely spaced faltering gas lights. The uneven light created ominously shadowed hollows from which a fellow patient would stumble distractedly or hid a mumbling huddled figure.

Ten minutes earlier, Spike had been on display in front of a sizeable contingent of doctors in a lecture hall. He stood there shaking with cold, propped up by the two men who gripped him on each side, as the man or monster he had known as Doc calmly outlined Spike's patient history to his audience of peers. Reading from his notes, Doc went on to impartially detail Spike's current diagnosis.

"Mr. William Pratt is an excellent example of a subject suffering from extreme moral disruption characterized by melancholia and episodes of monomania. According to his family doctor, Mr. Pratt has always been of a sensitive nature, extremely close to his mother and even dabbled unsuccessfully in poetry. Unfortunately, he was a victim of overwhelming physical, mental and emotional strain so great that his mind had subsequently buckled. Beginning on an evening, where he had been subjected to rejection and humiliation at a party, he had gone on to suffer a physical attack in a back alley stable by ruffians. He was discovered several hours later, unconscious with massive trauma to his neck. The prognosis for his recovery was not good and he was removed back to the home of his mother. He surprisingly survived his injury but fell into a stupor during his recuperation. Upon waking from his hebetude, he discovered that his frail mother had expired during the interim. Blaming himself for what he termed his mother's unnecessarily early demise, Mr. Pratt withdrew from the outside world." Doc paused to look at Spike over his glasses as he turned a page in the report held in front of him, before continuing on. "It was then that he began to exhibit a fixation on the idea that he was a vampire. He began to retreat from the daylight, staying in rooms with the curtains tightly drawn and only appearing outside after the sun had set. He underwent a physical change as he would barely eat normal food. He unnerved his cook by preferring to drink the reddish aujus rather than the healthy supper laid in front of him. His behavior became increasingly bizarre and his emotional control became erratic until finally, upon alerting distant relatives, he was in turn secured in this institution."

Doc put down the report and walked over to Spike, looking at him with a remote scientific attitude as he considered the shaking figure in front of him. He turned back to address his audience.

"For the past four years since he has been residing at the hospital, Mr. Pratt still continues to experience periods of delusion where he believes he is a vampire in a strange unreal landscape. Fortunately, the cold immersion method is successful to a degree in ridding these hallucinations in the short term. As you can see, it is hard on the physical constitution. I believe that more permanent measures will need to be taken, so Mr. Pratt can be returned to a successful member of society. I would like to introduce my hypothesis for his treatment in the next section of our discussion." Doc turned his head over his shoulder, and issued the following directive to the aides. "You can take him back, now."

The attendant brutally yanked Spike from his memory as they came to a stop in front of a massive battered door with a small window with rusty worn bars across it. The short tempered aide muttered a curse as he pulled a key ring and jammed a hammer like key into the stubborn iron lock on the door as Spike stood there, swaying on unreliable legs. The door screamed as the metal raked over the rough concrete as the orderly grunted as he hefted it open. The gruff attendant harshly grabbed Spike by the back of his neck and thrust him through the doorway. Before his hand had left the back of Spike's neck, the orderly stopped Spike short, causing Spike to weave as he came to a stop.

"Hold!" The man barked as he began to grapple with the fastenings on the wet straitjacket Spike was wearing.

Spike staggered under the ruthless onslaught as the straitjacket was loosened and stripped from his body. Once the attendant had the jacket handing loosely in his hand, he used the other one to push Spike back into his cell.

Spike was flung forward as his limbs still had not come completely back under his control, he floundered across the cell. His shoulder hit the far icy cold wall of his cell with a sharp jab of pain. He felt the sharp hollow ends of straw from the pile that was his bedding jab into his feet. His eyes flitted around the room as he took in the surroundings he knew so well. There was no light or heat within the cell as Spike felt the damp hospital gown stick to his body. Hardly daring to look at the attendant who was wrestling the door closed, he stared away from the action as he began to slide down the rough-hewn wall down to the pile of straw. There was no window on this cell other than the window on the door. As the door closed, most of the cell was thrown into darkness. The only light that came in was the light from the hallway through the door's window. Spike slowly huddled with his legs bent in front of him, in the familiar spot where the dim light from the door's lone window pooled.

As he heard the key twist in the obdurate lock, Spike darted his eyes over to see the aide place his greasy face in between the bars of the door's window and smiled maliciously as he crowed.

"Welcome home, Mr. Pratt!"

…..

"I think I got something!"

Willow called out to the other Scoobies who were scattered around Buffy's living room. Willow was sitting at the breakfast table with her laptop in front of her as she frantically waved at the Scoobies to approach. Putting down their books, all the Scoobies and Giles rushed over to the table. Dawn was the first to get there and lay her elbows on the table as she leaned over to hear what the red headed witch had discovered. Giles quickly moved around to the far side of the table to peer over Willow's shoulder.

"What do you have?" Placing his hand on the back of Willow's chair, Giles asked as leaned over to peer at the computer screen.

"Well, you see we had that name...Mrs Lytton. I wasn't sure of the spelling. So, I tried a number of different spellings." Willow explained to the group. "Then I removed the obvious things like household appliances, mortgage companies and choir directors; nothing that would be overtly ominous."

"I wouldn't be so quick to disregard the mortgage companies. They can be very unpleasant!" Anya interjected. "I should know, you miss one little payment…"

"Anya, please. We're talking about Spike here." Xander gently chided his girlfriend as he patted her on the back as he nodded his head toward Willow.

"Oh, right. Okay, back to Spike and HIS problems." the ex-demon muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"Uh. Anyway, I looked up the spelling with a 'y' and this English baron came up." Willow expounded, looking around at the faces looking at her. "You know that Spike's British, so I thought that maybe there was something to it."

"Willow, what did you find?" Buffy asked, with a slightly thinning patience.

"It turns out this baron wrote a bunch of novels and was all political and stuff back under Queen Victoria." the red head stated and then leaned out from behind the computer to explain. "That was the queen of England when Spike was alive."

"Yes, Willow. We're very much aware of who Queen Victoria was." Giles said tiredly as he straightened and looked around at the perplexed faces surrounding him. Clearing his throat, he muttered. "Well, some of us are."

"I don't see where this is getting us any closer to Spike!" Dawn said impatiently,bouncing her folded hands on the table. "Tell us what you did find!"

"I remembered that Tara recalled that Spike said Mrs. Lytton. As I read up on this baron, it turns out that he did not have a happy family life." Willow bugged her eyes as she continued. "We're talking total 'War of the Roses' here. The wife hates him! He hates her! They were obviously in need of some good divorce attorneys."

"Willow! That's great; but could you just give us the highlights." Buffy interjected exasperatedly as she tilted her head toward the pair on the opposite side of the table.

"You see, both of them were accomplished writers; they both wrote and published books." Willow answered as she nodded her head at the Slayer.

"Again, not really following you!" the Slayer replied, sighing and wrinkling her face in confusion.

"I found this reference about a book: A Blighted Life by Rosina Lytton. Published in 1880." the witch proudly stated as she drug her finger across the screen

"Hey, that's what Spike said. He said Mrs. Lytton said it was blighted!" Tara popped up excited as she took a step closer to the table. She then timidly questioned. "Do you think that was what Spike was referring to?"

"I do believe he might have been." Giles pondered out loud. "Willow, does it state what the book was about?"

"Yeah. It turns out that the Baron had his wife unjustly committed to an asylum as insane when she became troublesome for his political career. She was telling all his dirty little secrets." Willow stared at the laptop screen as she communicated the information to the group. "She got out a few weeks later and wrote this book as an expose on the whole thing. It was quite radical."

"So, you're saying that this book was about being held in an asylum against your will?" the watcher commented as he considered the concept as he brought up his hand to wrap around his chin.

"Oh! I just realized…" Tara gasped as her eyes widened, bringing up her fingers to cover her mouth.

"What, Tara?" Xander asked as he turned toward the gentle witch.

"I get it now. Spike said 'out of sight, out of mind' was poetic. He was talking about where he had been." the softspoken witch said as her eyes bounced from face to face, finally landing on Dawn's worried face.

"Yes, if he was questioning his sanity, that maybe why he continued to ask if we were real." Giles added as he moved his hand to rub the back of his neck.

"You don't think…" Dawn asked haltingly as she turned her face back and forth from the watcher to the witch. "That's why he was so…"

Tara tried to respond with a compassionate smile, but was unable to; so she nodded mutely as she looked away.

"But, Spike's not crazy!" the teenager declared as she stood up. She began to rant as emotions threatened to overwhelm her. "That's why he was so sad. He just needs help! We gotta help him!"

"Dawn, calm down." Buffy said as she came over and wrapped her arm around her sister's shoulders. "We're going to get him back."

"If you love me, Buffy, you'll promise that we're going to get him back." Dawn pleaded as she turned her watery eyes toward the Slayer.

"I promise." Buffy affirmed with a nod. Then sighing, she looked around the room and asked. "Okay, I'm taking ideas. Anyone know how to break into a madhouse?"


	12. Chapter 12

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…..

Chapter 12

"I think… I know how to track him." Tara uncomfortably uttered to the room.

"How?" Willow asked looking over at the other witch with surprise on her face.

"I gave him a Galamehjian blessing when we were talking on the porch. We should be able to use it to track Spike to whichever dimension he's been dragged." The gentle witch shrugged, uneasy at being the center of attention.

"Do you think it will work?" Giles asked skeptically.

"Galamehjian is one of the most potent goddesses. She is worshipped cross dimensionally." Willow interjected " She should be able to locate Spike. Where ever he might be."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's do it!" Dawn proclaimed, as her tears began to give way to hope.

"It's not so easy, Dawn. We have to curry the favor of the goddess." Willow warned.

The entire afternoon seemed to crawl for Dawn as she watched the witches and Giles prepare for the ceremony to call on the goddess. Anya and Giles had gone to the Magic box and returned with assorted spellbooks and other appropriate supplies. Several stacks of books were spread across the breakfast table as Tara and Willow looked for a specific spell in a large dusty volume while Giles and Anya were busy sorting and discussing which of the books would have the most appropriate spells. Wandering around the edge of the table, Dawn picked up a small uninspiring looking book that was the size of a manual that was sitting on the corner. Turning it over in her hand, she saw the title was Basics of Inter-dimensional Corporeal Displacement. She turned to look at the Scoobies who were all busy in preparing for tonight's ceremony. She knew that not one of them valued Spike like she did. She wondered how far they were willing to go for this rescue effort for a vampire that they really did not care a lot about. Like it or not, Dawn decided it would be better if she devised a rescue plan of her own just in case. Dawn's eyes darted around the room as she slid the book from the table down one of the chairs where she secured it under the cushion of the chair. Tara looked up from the page that she was studying and caught Dawn a moment too late. Dawn had just relaxed into a casual pose when Tara addressed her which made her jump slightly.

"Dawn. Do you think you still have some of Spike's hair from your haircut?" Tara asked the teenager

"It was pretty nasty, so I flushed it, but maybe I missed some. Let me go check." Dawn stated as she began to step away from the table. "Do you think it will help locating Spike?"

"I think it will most definitely." The gentle witch confirmed with a nod and a soft smile.

Dawn charged up the stairs to the bathroom, where she had cut Spike's hair. She spun around in the center of the room, eyes searching for any blonde hair that might have missed sweeping up. There, against the corner of the cabinet, she saw it. A small lock of white hair lay curled under the overhand of the cabinet. She got down on her knees and reached for it, her fingers enclosing on it. She stood up and turned toward the door to march downstairs and present her prize, but she stopped. Looking at the perfect white curl in her hand, she looked at the door and then down again at the curl. Twisting her mouth, she pulled a pink colored tissue out of the box on the counter. Laying it flat, she pulled a few strands from the curl and placed them on the tissue. She folded the tissue up and carefully stuffed it into her front jeans pocket. Sighing, she patted the curl flat against the palm of her hand and then opened the bathroom door to the hallway to deliver the hair to Tara.

She hung out at the entry of the dining room as she watched Giles and Xander move the dining room table over to the side and Willow and Tara create a sacred circle with ashes, odd vessels of particular fluids and candles. In the center of the circle was a smaller circle that had a large bowl in the center. Dawn buzzed with anxiety as she tried to stifle her impulse to hurry the proceedings, her thoughts dwelling on Spike and whatever trauma he might currently be experiencing. Buffy would come over from time to time, to put a comforting arm around her obviously suffering younger sister. Dawn would lean the top of her head against Buffy's temple as Buffy muttered soothing words that it would all be all right and Spike would be found. Dawns hand would unconsciously cover the opening of her jeans pocket that held Spike's hair.

Finally, after the sun disappeared behind the horizon and the full moon rose in the sky, Willow announced that everything was prepared for the ceremony. Willow gathered everyone into the dining room and sat them on the floor at particular spots around the circle. She asked that everyone clear their minds of negative thoughts and not speak during the ceremony. All lights were turned off so only the moonlight filtered into the room from the windows, Willow held up her hands and said a few words to call on the spirits to assist them. She held up her arms and flames suddenly jumped up from the candles. As the caster of the blessing, Tara came down the stairs in a floor length gown with a design painted on her face. There was a dot on each cheek with three dots across her forehead. The room became eerily quiet as she took her place at the head of the circle directly across from Willow.

"Galamehjian , Resplendent Holder of Light and Dark, Guardian of the Infinite Balance, we beseech thee. Galamehjian, hear us. Your handmaidens ask you to hear our plea." Tara and Willow intoned in unison, their faces becoming illuminated by an unearthly light as they spoke.

Suddenly a plume of what appeared to be illuminated silver and gold dust appeared to spring forth out of the bowl. The small sounds of gasps filled the room as the onlookers' eyes widened in surprise. Xander's hand reached over and grasped Anya's. Giles' eyes went to Tara as she calmly proceeded with the ceremony.

"Galamehjian, Lady of the Umbra, I ask to be admitted into your circle." Tara pronounced as she took a grave step inside the outside circle.

"Galamehjian, Eidolon of the Radiance, I ask to be admitted into your circle." Willow pronounced as she too took a step inside the larger circle.

The two women sat down across from each other on either side of the smaller circle. They joined hands as the plume of brilliant sparkling light spun itself between them.

"Glamehjian, In light of the sun, we praise you. In light of the moon, we praise you. We ask for your assistance in locating out companion. He is lost and must be found." The witches intoned.

Tara picked up the piece of Spike's hair and dropped it into the light before rejoining her hands with Willow. The lock of hair hung suspended for a moment in the light before it winked out of existence. Tara began to chant. "Look upon the worlds beyond end, seek him. Show him to us, we beseech thee. Glamehjian, we beseech thee."

Willow joined in the chant. The two witches repeated the chant in unison, as the light twisted wildly between them.

"Glamehjian. We beseech thee. Show us the lost one. We beseech thee."

Suddenly, the spire of golden and silver light began to get brighter. It flared so brilliantly that Willow clinched her eyes shut and turned her face away. Tara however, stared into the light. Her face was golden as her eyes focused on spot in the flame. Her face took on a look of recognition as she drew in her breath. In that instance what looked like a demon's reptilian hand reached up out of the bowl and extinguished the flame, causing a explosion of light to surge out of the circle, overturning the vessels , blowing out the candles and knocking everyone backward.

A few seconds later, everyone was pulling themselves off the floor from where they lay sprawled.

"TARA! WILLOW!" Buffy yelled into the darkness.

Xander scrambled up from the floor, staggering over to the wall and flipped the light switch. As the light filled the room, everyone began to rockily sit up.

"Is everyone alright?" Giles called as he sat on the floor, looking around the room. Xander was bent down over Anya helping her to sit up. Buffy was looking over at Dawn, who was raptly staring at the two witches in the center of the circle.

"Are you two okay?" Dawn asked as she stared at the two women who were slowly sitting up again in the center of the circle.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Tara, honey? Willow asked as she reached toward the other witch.

"I'm okay, just a little banged up." Tara answered as she was weakly supporting herself by one arm as pushed her hair back from her face. She gave Willow a small smile and nodded as she ruefully rubbed her neck.

"Dear Lord, what was that thing that crushed the plume?" Giles stated as he found his glasses perched on top of his head and pulled them off to clean them. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I don't know what it was, but it sure didn't appreciate you two peeking through its window shades!" Xander spouted as he helped Anya to her feet.

"I don't ever want to do that again!" Buffy announced. "It was too freaky!"

"Tara, that thing. Does it have Spike? Did you see him?" Dawn asked slowly as she watched the witch's face closely.

"Yes, I think I began to see him just before that thing…" Tara replied before she shook her head in revulsion at the recent event.

"Was he alright?" Dawn asked methodically, not to be averted from her course.

"I think so. He's alive or whatever you call Spike's normal state, but..."

"But what? Was he hurt?" the teenager asked urgently.

"No, not physically but his aura did not look good."

"His aura? What do you mean?"

"I think he's hopeless. Whatever has got him has taken away his spirit." Tara looked away from Dawn's face, as she thought of the misery that seemed to emanate from the vampire.

"No, Spike's a fighter." Dawn declared, slowly shaking her head in defiance. "As long as he has a glimmer of hope, he'll fight."

"Dawn, I know it may be hard, but you may have to accept that Spike may be out of our reach." Buffy said as she kneeled next to her sister, placing her hand on her back.

"No. I don't believe that. You just don't want to rescue him." Dawn snipped as she pulled away and wheeled around to face her sister and the room. "You all thought he was worthless, just another evil vampire. Well, he's not. He's my friend. I am going to rescue him whether you all help or not!"

"Dawn, please calm down." Giles' voice carried over to the girl. "Of course, we're going to do our best to rescue Spike."

"Your best? Wow, I'm impressed." Dawn barked as she felt her eyes fill with emotion. "You make it sound like we're talking about a game of cricket. Oh well, jolly rotten luck, that we lost that one, old boy. Maybe we'll have better luck on the next vampire."

"Dawn, don't speak to Giles like that. We're all here trying to help." Buffy said softly as she tried to calm her sister

"Sure, I'm sure you're going to put that on top of your to do list, Buffy. Why does it seem that I am the only one who is insistent on rescuing Spike?" Dawn bawled at the room.

"No, Dawn. You're not the only one." Tara's quiet voice broke in.

"Look, Dawn. I made you a promise that I will get him out of there and I am going to do it." Buffy affirmed as she grasped her sister's shoulders in her hands.

"When, Buffy? Next week? Next year?" Dawn uttered, as she slightly turned away from her sister.

"Dawnie, we don't know what we're up against. That thing that just reached in here and ended the laser light show we had going on." Willow interjected. "We need to be prepared so we can defeat it and rescue Spike."

"Tara, did you see where that demony looking hand came from?" Buffy asked the timid witch.

"No, I didn't. If it was strong enough to crush the elemental in our plain, it is formidable."

"We don't know if that hand even came from the dimension where Spike is. And if it is, and that thing has Spike, we need to go get him!" Dawn blurted as she attempted to pull away from Buffy's arms.

"Dawn, let's not be rash. We need to plan our next step." Giles admonished the young girl. "There's obviously another player in the game and we need to find out all we can before we launch a rescue attempt for Spike."

"Yeah, Dawn. I would hate to meet what was on the other end of that hand in a dark alley." Xander added from the far end of the room.

"There's no time. Spike is suffering." Dawn sputtered as she looked from face to face, looking for a compatriot in her reasoning.

"Dawn, we'll rescue him. We just need to plan an effective attack." Buffy's voice sank Dawn's hope. Buffy turned to the rest of the Scoobies. "I think we've all had enough for tonight. I think we should all go home and get some rest. What say we meet here again tomorrow night?"

Dawn pressed her lips together in frustration as she watched Giles, Anya and Xander leave the house for the evening. Tara and Willow soon went up the stairs to their bedroom since the ceremony had taken so much out of them. Buffy stood at the entry to the dining room, looking at the mess and decided to leave it as is, since they would probably be up to using it again tomorrow night. Ten minutes later, Buffy pushed her sister up the stairs to bed.

….

A few hours later, Dawn came down the stairs. Sneaking over to the kitchen table, she pulled out the small booklet she had squirreled away under the chair cushion. She pulled It out and went over to sit down on the end of the sofa. She turned on the reading light and opened the booklet. She read the entire booklet in a little over twenty minutes.

She was surprised at how simple inter-dimensional transport turned out to be. All she really needed was a sacred circle: Hello dining room- got that. A personal item of the target in the other dimension: Spike's hair-got that. Finally a power source: Just call me 'I was a glowing ball of green energy' Summers she thought- got that. All she had to do was to perform the simple incantations and she should be able to get to Spike and rescue him.

"Hmmm. Rescue." She thought she better take some precautions if rescuing Spike turned out to be harder than she thought. Sneaking back upstairs, Dawn grabbed her long underwear from a skiing trip, a white blouse, one of Buffy's vests she had borrowed, a silver chain with a gold cross, wool socks, hiking boots, a long skirt of Willows. Once she had put all that on, she made sure that the skirt hid the fact she was wearing jeans. She also grabbed several large bobby pins, a pony tail holder and a large shawl that had been her mother's. Once she got back downstairs, she raided the weapons chest, pulling out a dagger, a bottle of holy water and stake. She went to the kitchen and gathered a large kitchen knife, a paring knife, a flashlight with fresh batteries, a universal screwdriver, and box of matches along with several small candles.

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, securing it with the holder and slid the paring knife inside her hiking boot along her ankle, just in case. Opening the shawl on the floor, she placed the remaining items inside and wrapped it up tight into a small bundle. Grabbing the book, she tore out the page with the incantations and slid it into her bra.

Walking over to the circle in the dining room, she brushed the mussed ashes with her hands back into a line so the circle was once again complete. She picked up the vessels and was pleased to find a little of the fluids had managed to be retained by them. She placed the candles upright and lit them. She knelt by the bowl in the center of the circle. She shoved her hand into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out the pink tissue with Spikes hair. She carefully opened the tissue in order to pick up the few strands of Spike's hair between her fingers. She gently laid the hairs the bottom of the ceremonial bowl. Looking over her shoulder at the entrance of the dining room, she checked to see if she was truly alone. She breathed a sigh of relief and then picked up the shawl and tied it tightly around her waist. She pulled out the paring knife from her boot and placed it on her lap. She pulled out the sheet of paper with the incantation and read it out loud. The flames of the candles seemed to jump a little higher and the bowl holding Spike's hair began to vibrate. Swallowing down a knot in her throat, Dawn looked down at her lap and picked up the small knife. Holding her hand out over the bowl with her index finger extended, she made a small cut into the pad of her finger. Her thumb pressed on the lower part of her finger to make the few drops of blood drip down into the bowl. As it did, Dawn began to recite the spell once again.

"As breath and thought be tightly drawn, power and chaos be reigned, let barriers between worlds fall and give me what I seek."

At first, Dawn blinked her eyes as she saw what could best be described as a ripple in the bottom of the bowl. As she watched as the pool of energy began to swirl and get larger. It enveloped the bottom of the bowl and began to spread out. As it came nearer, Dawn stood up from her kneeling position. She took a few steps back and quickly replaced the knife back into her boot. Bringing up her chin in determination, she flung herself into to the portal which just as quickly winked out of existence.

…

Dawn did not know where she was. She felt a rough surface cutting into the flesh of her back and head. She was sitting propped up against a wall. Her eyes were reluctant to open as she rocked her head back and forth trying to open them. She needed to see where she was, but she could only use her other senses until her eyes decided to obey. Her body told her that where she was it was bone chilling cold and the air had an unpleasant taste of smoke and odd smells to it. She could feel her arms crossed in front of her and the weight of the shawl pressing against her forearm. Good she thought, at least her supplies came with her. In the next instant, an ugly voice rang out like a slap across the cheek.

"GIRL! GET UP!"


	13. Chapter 13

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…

Chapter 13

"Oh, man! What have I landed in?"

Dawn moaned a little as she fought against the exhaustion that threatened to overtake her as she sat cross-legged on the worn kitchen floor. She looked down at her abused and reddened hands cradled in her lap. Looking at them now, there was no indication that these hands had recently sported pale purplish pink nail polish and had not possessed a blister or callus before arriving in this dimension. She carefully inspected her insulted fingertips with their chipped and ragged nails in front of her. They were so swollen and bruised that it hurt when she pressed down on them. The muscles in her upper back and arms also joined the symphony of agony as she tried to readjust herself to a comfortable position under the large kitchen table. She had been trapped in this large institutional kitchen for days, the longest days she had ever experienced.

Looking around her, Dawn saw the sleeping figures of the kitchen staff scattered around the area between her and the only source of heat in the kitchen. She was sat on her thin coarse pallet under the kitchen table farthest away from the fireplace. The kitchen staff members with more seniority were closer to the warmth issuing out of the fireplace. She could feel the cold air swirl on her side farthest from the fire as she pulled her mother's shawl out of its hiding place. She had tucked into the boards of the table overhead to keep prying eyes away from it. Looking around to see no one was awake, she carefully untied the shawl with her aching hands.

It had been eleven days of torment since she had opened her eyes to see an imposing greasy looking woman towering over her. The woman's formless dingy blouse was underneath a large apron that had so many stains from cooking, blood and other fluids appeared to be pattern similar to lizard skin. The bedraggled collar of the woman's blouse hung lopsidedly around the area between her large head and her vast upper body that might have once been termed a neck. The stains from sweat decorated the threadbare sleeves that were rolled up over her knobby elbows and substantial forearms. Behind the woman, in the uneven glow from the fireplace and gaslights, Dawn could see several large tables with foodstuffs surrounded by a bustling number of people. Over by the oversized fireplace, there were several large kettles hanging suspended. Dawn blinked at the bright light from the fire bouncing off the cracked tiles in the back of the fireplace.

"I suppose you're the girl the foundation sent over? Stand when your betters address you! This is an honest kitchen. You'll do an honest day's work. There will be no relying on charity, I tell you!" The gruff and intimidating woman declared and then stared at Dawn with a malice filled glare. "I know your kind; you'll try to shirk your part. I have no problem heaving back to find your way on the street!"

Um..." Dawn uttered. She looked up at the looming figure and swallowed hard as her eyes roamed around the scene she found herself in. "Where is he? Where's Spike?"

'What's the matter with you? Get up before I put me boot to ya! Please spare me another simpleton! There is plenty of work to be done."

"Where...What is this place?" Dawn stammered, still trying to register what type of place this was.

"Cor Blimey! I do not have time for lay-abouts! Get up! You won't be pleading weakness in this kitchen! If you want food, you'll work for it! Now, on your feet, before I throw you back in the gutter where you came from!"

Dawn looked down at her legs and did not see Willow's cotton skirt. She saw a shabby worn woolen dress covering her legs that had obviously see better days. Instead of the rounded toes of her solid hiking boots, she saw the sharp pointed toes of scuffed and bedraggled high laced boots peeking out at the other end of her dress. She turned and placed her hand on the wall as she brought her feet under her. Suddenly, she felt an iron grip of the woman wrap around her bicep as she heard the woman's impatient huff. As she bounded upwards, Dawn's senses were assaulted by the woman's rather ripe aroma and tried to pull back from the woman's grip. In the next instant, she was violently jerked by the sweaty and grimy looking woman further into the kitchen and her new situation.

It turned out the Dawn found herself in the large institutional kitchen of the Middlesex Asylum. She was the new scullery maid reporting for her first day of work. She found the woman was one of the kitchen staff that she would be reporting as the woman flung a large worn apron and cap at Dawn. What surprised Dawn the most was that no one seemed to notice her accent or for that matter to ask what her name was. She was simply called 'Scullery' by the entire kitchen. As a scullery maid, Dawn would be tasked with scrubbing the large collection of dishes, copper cooking pans and implements. Her other task was to stoke the fires and provide hot water for the kitchen. The water had to be toted in by hand and poured into a kettle that hung near the fire. The hot water was in constant use in the kitchen which meant many trips to the well pump and lugging heavy buckets of water through the traffic of the kitchen. Her remaining hours would be spent in the endless task of scrubbing the tables and floors of the kitchen.

The staff moved like machinery around her as they prepared the vast amount of poor quality and equally depressing food for the inmates. Along the side of the kitchen there were doors to the employee dining room and to the private bedroom of the head cook. There was a large door at the opposite end of the kitchen that was kept locked that led to the asylum. The only key that unlocked the door hung around the waist of the head cook. The door was only unlocked when the number of carts carrying the thin gruel or soup with rough bread was carted out into the facility for consumption by the poorer inmates. Each cart was pushed by a pair of kitchen maids.

As the lowest ranking in the kitchen, Dawn found that she also had to wait on the table of her fellow kitchen staff while they dined. Once everyone was fed, Dawn was allowed a few moments to scarf down a dismal tasting meal before she was expected back to her unceasing cycle of dirty dishes and pans. She tried on several occasions to question the kitchen maids about the asylum but was soon met with derision and scoffing. Once she had tried to follow one pair of the maids with a cart out the door where she was met with a backhand from one of the maids.

"Go on! Get about your work!" An irritated frizzy haired maid barked at her before swiftly turning her back on her to push the cart into the hallway.

She stumbled back into the kitchen holding her cheek, shock bringing the sting of tears to the back of her eyes. The door was then securely shut behind the last cart as the key spun in the lock, closing the only avenue to finding Spike. As she stood there, Dawn heard the ominous click of the key in the lock, imprisoning her in the kitchen once again. She stared at the key as it swung back and forth like a pendulum hanging from the head cook's waist. The head cook turned and stared at Dawn with an uncompromising gaze, till Dawn retreated back to the sinks.

It was roughly around two in the morning, as Dawn sat there looking at the items in her shawl. If it wasn't for their presence, she might have doubted there ever was a Sunnydale. The items such as the dagger and the candles were a comfort, but it was the flashlight that was the telling point for Dawn. It could have only come from Sunnydale; it was her physical tie back to Buffy and the Scoobies. She let the coolness of the aluminum tube sink into her skin as she let it rest in her hand for a moment. Then putting it back and rewrapping the shawl, she secreted her bundle back under the structure of the table. With new determination, Dawn knew she had to get out the kitchen soon and rescue Spike, if not for his sake; but for hers as well.

It was mid morning of the next day that one of the maids was injured in the butchery. With her hand wrapped in her apron, she was sent off to the wing of the teaching hospital. Upon returning from a discussion with the head cook, another maid walked over to Dawn who was busy trying to remove some baked on drippings from a pan. The maid clapped her hand on Dawn's shoulder and announced.

"Since Pansy won't be able to assist with the mid day food distribution, you're to take her place."

Dawn looked back over her shoulder and solemnly nodded. It wasn't until she turned back to the sink that she allowed a small corner of her mouth to pull up into a smile. She knew that now she was going to get out of this kitchen and hopefully find Spike soon after.

…

As the portal closed, a ripple of magic flowed out into the surrounding area. At the sensation, Tara and Willow sat bolt upright in bed. They had both been awakened by the shudder issued by the closing portal downstairs. Looking at each other, their eyes locked, each knowing what they felt did not bode well. Willow bolted out of bed in only her pajamas while Tara grabbed her bathrobe and quickly followed. The sound of their running feet in the hallway brought Buffy to her door in time to see the two witches noisily clamber down the staircase.

By the time, Buffy grabbed her robe and fuzzy slippers and made it down the stairs, she found the witches standing in the dining room. Willow and Tara were standing inside the circle. Tara held her hand up in the air as if she was playing blind man's bluff while Willow was examining the sacred circle items.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" Buffy asked, widening her sleepy eyes and blinking as she leaned against the corner of the dining room entrance.

"Buffy...we felt…Someone was practicing magic." Tara responded softly as she dropped her hand and looked back at the slayer.

"What do you mean 'someone'? You're the only witches in the house." Buffy said, as she pulled up a hand to scratch the back of her head with a yawn.

"Buffy, you know that with the right supplies and incantations, anyone could cast a simple spell." Willow leaned forward to look at Buffy before her eyes went back to their search.

Slowly, Willow knelt down and picked up a piece of paper that looked like it had been torn from a book. Reading the piece of paper in her hand, she walked over to Tara with a serious look. She silently showed it to the other witch. After reading it, Tara's eyes flew up to look at Willow's grim face.

"Who would be casting a spell, this time of night?" Buffy mumbled as she was still struggling to wake up. "I mean there is only the four of us here in the house. Who would be interested in casting a….DAWN!"

Suddenly awake and alert, Buffy turned and flew up the stairs as she called her sister's name.

"DAWN! DAWN!"

Willow and Tara looked at each other as they listened to Buffy's feet run thunderously down the hall to Dawn's bedroom. The sounds of doors being flung open and Dawn's name came barreling down the stairs. After a few moments of quiet, Buffy finally reappeared at the dining room entrance.

"She's gone! You don't think..." Buffy admitted as she looked worriedly at the witches. "That...that she...she."

"From magic still reverberating around this room, I would say she pretty much did." Willow said sadly, nodding her head at the slayer. Tara looked away with a pained look of agreement to Willow's statement.

"Well, can we get her back? I mean, you're both witches. Is there a way to put the spell in reverse to bring her back here?" Buffy asked with urgent hope. "Because I so want to wring her neck and I really need to have her neck BE HERE to do that!"

"Buffy, the spell she used doesn't work that way. It was specific to a point and place and in this case to a person." Tara answered, not quite daring to look at the fierce look in Buffy's eyes.

"What do you mean a person? You mean she went where Spike was?" Buffy gruffly demanded. Upon seeing Tara's reluctance to answer, she added "Oh, crap!"

"Well, maybe it's not that bad." Willow weakly proffered with a small flame of hope. "Just because Spike came back all broken and…oh, forget I said anything." Willow groaned as her attempt to keep be positive failed.

"I'm calling an emergency meeting of the Scoobies!" Buffy declared as she turned toward the kitchen and the phone. "The rescue of Spike and my pain in the butt little sister has just been moved up on my list of priorities!"


	14. Chapter 14

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…

Chapter 14

Spike was sitting in his new cell in the Middlesex Asylum Research wing. It was coated in built up layers of white paint applications that gave it a hazy ghost like appearance. There was no window in the room, but a gas light fixture secured behind a small metal cage gave off a flickering low light. There was a cot with a thin pallet pushed against one wall. Next to the cot by the door, was an outcropping of stone work that served as a ledge. In the far corner, there was a small pile of fresh straw and a bucket. Spike had been transferred to this wing a little over nine days ago.

One morning without warning, he was torn from his sleep when two large attendants flung open his door with a crashing sound. Before he was able to stand, he was grabbed and found himself brutally stripped, scrubbed and shorn. He was thrust into a gown made of heavier cotton before being strapped again into a straitjacket. He was summarily hauled through the institution. He was being moved from the halls of the inmates committed by the state over to the newer parts of the asylum. Spike was bewildered to find himself in the antiseptically frightening Research wing. This was the wing that the inmates whispered about in fear, whispers of tales of people disappearing into the halls of science never to be seen again.

He did not move for several minutes after the door slammed shut behind him. He slowly moved over to the corner with the straw and slid down until he was crouching. He slowly scrapped his fingertips along the wall, feeling the gummy surface under them. He pushed his thumbnail into the surface where he could see it leave an indentation. There was an atmosphere of suffering that seemed to emanate from the almost dough like walls. Spike wondered how much suffering was trapped in between the layers of paint on the walls. For the first few hours after being delivered to his new cell, Spike had stared at the walls of the cell like it was an apparition. He had become accustomed to living in the darkness of his previous cell. Spike knew it as well as the back of his hand, and in that respect, there were no terrors to frighten him there. However, in this cell all the horrors were illuminated, there was no escape from them.

The next morning, three pairs of brightly polished shoes entered Spike's field of vision as he stared at the floor. He looked up to see three men dressed in particularly fine Victorian garb. The man in the center leaned down to peer in Spike's face. A slow smile appeared across the hauntingly familiar face that addressed him.

"Good morning, Mr. Pratt." Doc easily greeted the vampire. Turning his head slightly away, he spoke over his shoulder to one of the men. "Prepare him."

Spike barely noticed the other man quickly step forward; but he could not tear his eyes from Doc's face as he straightened. Watching Spike for a moment, Doc dismissively turned his head to address the man on his other side and Spike felt the jab of a needle in his throat.

...

It was the fourth night that Dawn had participated in the food distribution. She was amazed by the sheer size of the institution. Each night, she peered up and down the dimly lit halls looking for Spike in the wing her cart was assigned. As she and the other maid pushed through a plate and small bowl through an opening at each door. Some of the doors had had a window that she could peer at the inhabitants, others did not. She got on her knees to peer through the small flap where she pulled out the previous' meals dishes and insert the next meal. Ever time, she pushed open every small metal flap at the bottom of the doors, she knelt down. Her knees wobbled on the hard uneven floor as the coldness leeched up into her knees. The smell of unwashed bodies and little available sanitation assaulted her senses; but did little to deter her from her quest to find and rescue Spike.

"You're just going to get filthy doing it that way. You should just reach in and pull out the dishes and push in the new." Warned the kitchen maid that was serving the cells on the opposite side of the hallway. "Be sure to not to reach too far in. Believe me! You don't want to get grabbed by one of them."

Dawn stood up and brushed off the bottom of her apron by her knees.

"I just thought it was important to get the empty dishes." Dawn replied as her reason for looking in the slot. She shrugged her shoulders in deference, desperate to avoid giving the impression that she was looking for someone.

When the pair returned to the kitchen with their cart, the kitchen was in an uproar. It seemed while Dawn had been out, the lack of incoming hot water that Dawn supplied had become an issue. The kitchen was now behind on the scheduled production of the next meal. As a complicating factor, due to no one manning the scullery, the dishes from the other returning carts had created a massive pile in the scullery. On top of Dawn disappointment of not locating Spike, she had to contend with this onslaught of dirty dishes. She grabbed a stack of dirty dishes from the cart and was moving them to the scullery when the Head Cook stopped her. She was informed that it was imprudent for Dawn to be absent from the kitchen as long lengths of time. As a result, the maids were going to be reassigned for different carts. Dawn would be assigned with one of the kitchen maids with a smaller area, so she could return to the kitchen more readily. Starting on the next distribution, Dawn would be pushing the cart for the asylum's Research wing.

...

"Where is everyone?" Buffy asked as she paced back in forth by the stair case, still in her pajamas.

"Buffy, it is the middle of the night. Everyone was asleep. They'll get here as soon as they can." Willow stated as she came downstairs, having quickly dressed. "Why don't you go throw on some clothes?"

"Fine! Yell, if anyone shows up!" Buffy grumbled after looking down at her pajamas and then charging up the stairs.

"Wow! She's barely keeping it together." Willow stated as she entered the kitchen where Tara was making coffee.

"Well, Dawn disappearing was the last thing she expected. You can't b...blame her for being upset." Tara replied as she got the milk out of the refrigerator and placing it on the island. "Coffee?"

"Sure." Willow replied with a sigh as she climbed up on a barstool. Tara turned around with a pair of coffee mugs. Placing both mugs on the island, she poured them each a cup of coffee. Tara pushed one of the mugs over to Willow, before she turned to replace the coffee pot back in the coffee maker.

"Thanks, hon." Willow picked up the mug and brought it to her mouth. She took a sip and looked thoughtfully at the mug.

"Do you think Dawn went where that demon hand was?" Willow hesitantly asked, looking intently at the mug in her hand.

"I think so."

"So…you got any ideas on finding out what we're dealing with?" the redhead tilted her head as she thought about the situation.

"I don't know. I hope Giles has some ideas." Tara replied as Buffy suddenly appeared in the kitchen.

"Ideas about what?"

...

Spike was sitting in the corner, trying to quell the spasms in arms and legs. His head ached with every sight and sound, making him wish for death. He felt like he had been chewed up by a massive machine. Every one of his nerve endings felt like they were on fire. On top of that, whatever they were injecting him with was making him so incredibly nauseous he could barely move. At the end of the most recent session, they had thrown him face down, haphazardly across the cot. When he woke, he shakily crawled on his hands and knees over to the corner where he curled up, trying to block out the painful light and sound. He tried to find some respite from the pain. He concentrated on becoming blank as he closed his eyes and ears to everything around him.

...

It was time for the dinner carts to be pushed out. Dawn had just finished refilling one of the kettles by the fireplace to heat water, when a tall kitchen maid with a narrow face came over to grab her.

"You're supposed to help me with the Research wing cart." The maid said as she pulled on Dawn's arm. Dawn put the water bucket down and swung the kettle over by the flames before going with the maid.

The maid waved Dawn over to a table on the far corner of the kitchen. On the table were thirty dishes with a small card with barely discernible writing on each one.

"You can read, can't ya? These trays are for the research subjects. They're supposed to get special food. Make sure ya don't mix-em up. Those doctors up there aren't known for their forgiveness." The maid casually informed Dawn. "Pick up the trays with the cards and place them in the cart. You mix-em up and it's your neck!"

Dawn and the maid picked up the trays with the cards and carefully loaded them onto the cart. Dawn realized that the writing of the nineteenth century was a lot harder to read than in the twentieth. Or maybe, someone just wrote with their foot, she joked in her head. A smile appeared briefly on her mouth that made the other kitchen maid scowl in response. Dawn cleared her throat and quickly reached for another meal and card.

Ten minutes later, after leaving the kitchen area, Dawn and the other maid arrived with their cart at the entrance of the Research wing. There was a large metal portcullis across the entry to the wing. A guard moved forward to unlock one side of the double doors in the center. Dawn and the other maid grunted as they pushed the obstinate cart from a standstill and through the doorway.

Dawn was surprised once she passed through the doors and encountered the majestic beauty of the Research wing. It differed vastly from the other parts of the Asylum where she had been. The hallway was reminiscent of a cathedral with gleaming white arches and vaulted ceiling. A large window was located at the opposite end of the wing. The window was imposing enough to be expected to be stained glass, but held only plain glass instead. The maroon floor shone with a high shine that made it almost iridescent. Dawn was so awestruck, that she had to tamp down her initial reaction to whisper.

As the women pushed the cart down the wing, the maid signaled for Dawn to stop. Inside each arch was a door. It was a large shining wooden door which possessed a small metal panel that could be slid back. Below the panel, there was a card holder that held a velum card with the name of the patient inside. Beckoning Dawn over to the door on her side of the cart, the maid pointed at the card.

"You read the card and then you go get the matching tray. Wait for the guard to open the door. There's a ledge inside the doorway. Place the tray on the ledge. Grab the old tray and get out." The maid instructed Dawn with a pinched mouth. "What does this card say?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you said you could read!" the maid grumbled as she took a threatening stance.

"Oh, I can. I just wasn't expecting…." Dawn responded flustered. Then gathering herself, leaned forward to read the card. "It says 'Hutts'." Dawn reported and turned to see the maid's back as she went back to the cart.

Dawn took a step back as she saw the maid motion toward the guard watching them. The guard moved forward and unlocked the door. He stood there while the maid went in with the fresh tray and returned with the used one. The guard swung the door closed and locked it.

"So, that's it?" Dawn asked slowly as she looked over to the maid.

"Yeah, I'll do this side. See that guard over there, you and him will do the other side. Once ya've done three cells, come back to the cart and we'll move it down the wing."

Dawn nodded as she walked uncertainly across the wing. She read the card on the door. It said "Bailey". She turned and located the tray on the cart. She motioned to the guard. He opened the door for her. She entered the hazily lit room and stopped for a second, looking for an occupant. There on the end of the cot, sat a figure rocking back and forth. Seeing the ledge with the old tray, Dawn pushed the new meal onto the ledge. She picked up the old tray as he eyes landed on the figure. Seeing the misery of the poor being, she felt she had to say something.

"Hello." Dawn said softly.

The figure frantically jumped up and scrambled toward the wall, whimpering. Dawn backed up with the old tray in her hands, apologetically stumbling out of the cell. As she passed the guard, he looked at her with the old experience in his voice.

"Don't talk to the subjects." He advised her as he shut and locked the door. Dawn nodded mutely as she turned to place the used tray on the cart.

It was at second cell of the fourth stop of the cart, that Dawn found herself already becoming strangely inured to suffering she found inside the cells. Within seconds, she could tell if the inhabitant was the person she was looking for. She sighed as she turned from the cart and went over to the door and read the card. Her eyes stared blankly at the name as she trudged back to the cart and located the tray. Nodding at the guard to open the door, she waited as she held the tray at arm's length in front of her.

Dawn walked into the cell. She was surprised to see that the inmate was not sitting on the cot as all the others had in the previous cells she had visited. She glanced around to see a figure huddled up in the corner, arms wrapped around him as he kept his face to the wall. Dawn continued to stare at the figure. The hair had been shorn so close that she could see the scalp. She could see the red scrape marks and burns blazing fiercely against the pale skin.

Shaking herself aware, she took a step over to ledge where she deposited the fresh tray and picked up the previous meal's tray that lay untouched. Sighing at the lack of appetite and the state of the individual in the corner, she looked over at the man in the corner. From this angle, she could see the bare edge of his profile. There was something about it that caught her eye. The man slightly turned his head and then she saw it. The man's eyebrow had a cross cut scar

Dawn's hands inadvertently opened when the recognition hit her. The tray and dishes clattered against the cement floor causing the uneaten food to splatter. Dawn stared at the man in the corner as she breathed one word.

"Spike?"


	15. Chapter 15

Render the Extra Mile

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…

Chapter 15

The loud booming crash of the tray against the floor quickly followed by the rattling of the dishes rang through the cell as Dawn stood there dumbstruck. She wasn't sure how long she stood there with her mouth open as time seemed to stand still. The sound of the ringing of the dishes went on and on as she stared at Spike. Dawn jumped when she heard a deep male voice pierce the dead atmosphere.

"Girl! Is there trouble in there?"

Dawn whipped her head around toward the voice of the guard coming in from the door way. The last thing she needed was for company to enter, especially when she wanted to talk to Spike. Taking a breath, she wiped her hands on the front of her stained apron.

"No, I uh…just dropped the tray." Dawn did her best to sound casual but even she winced when she heard her shrill tone. She swallowed hard and then nervously added. "I just banged the morning tray against the corner of the wall."

"Do you need me to come in there?" The guard asked, with a vaguely ominous tone.

Dawn could tell from the tone that the guard was looking for an excuse to relieve the boredom despite at whose expense. Once more, she mustered up her courage and did her best to deflect the possibility of the guard coming in.

"No, no. Everything's okay. I just need to clean it up. It will only take a minute." Dawn called over as coolly as she could manage to the doorway as she crouched down over the fallen dishes. She stared at the door in dread listening for a heavy footfall of the guard. All that greeted her was silence to her relief.

Picking up the upturned wooden tray and setting it rightside on the floor, she leaned over to look out the doorway to check one more time. She relaxed slightly as she took a breath and measured the distance from the dishes to Spike. Looking back to the door and then over to the figure huddled in the corner. She urgently called in a half whisper.

"SPIKE!"

No response came from the hunched figure in the corner. Spike continued to sit hunched on the straw in the corner, facing the wall as if there was no one else in the room.

"Spike!" Dawn called again from her spot by the dishes as she gingerly picked up an overturned cup and set it on the tray as she glanced away from the vampire to the door to see if anyone else had heard her.

Quickly looking back, Dawn was disappointed to see no reaction from the vampire. He continued to sit there unaware with the top of his forehead pressed against the wall. Furtively looking back to the doorway, Dawn decided to leave the dishes and quickly scuttled away move over to the corner of the room. She raced hunched over till she was crouching next to Spike on the straw.

It wasn't until she was this close that she saw the damage that had been done to the vampire. He was ghostly pale with a pattern of half healed blue and purple bruises trailing down the side of his neck that disappeared within the heavy cotton gown's collar. His poor head was a myriad of small patches of uneven sproutings of white hair, punctuated by scrape marks and burns. She could see red and angry looking abrasions encircling the visible bony wrist and ankle from where he was crouched. It appeared as if he had been fighting restraints.

"Spike!" she gulped rather than spoke. She struggled to swallow the burgeoning emotions in her throat.

Unable to restrain herself, Dawn reached over and laid her hand over Spike's shoulder in comfort. She could feel the jutting bones of his shoulder through the thick cotton shift. Dawn bit her lip as she hopefully stared at Spike and willed him to respond.

It was the warm and gentle hand on his shoulder that penetrated the vampire's densely constructed wall of mental defenses. Spike was so accustomed to the casual violence that characterized his life in the asylum, that to feel a soft touch was unearthly. His initial reaction was to retreat father behind his carefully erected walls, to remove himself from this world; but the touch was beckoning some part of him to come forward. A loud and urgent voice in his head warned of it being a trick, danger; yet there was an old forgotten voice that firmly encouraged him to respond to the kindness. Unable to resist the urge, he slowly angled his head to regard the source of the touch. Keeping his eyes on the ground, he noticed the dingy stained apron next to him. He hesitantly and reluctantly raised his face. Although he had raised his face, he could not quite bring his eyes up to the face of the person beside him. Finally with a determined effort, Spike briefly raised his eyes and looked up. He froze when he saw the face.

"Spike?"

For what seemed an eternity, the two stared at each. Neither of them moved as they took in the face before them for a moment. Spike's eyelid twitched as his eye welled with an unshed tear as he stared at Dawn's face.

"Spike. It's me. Dawn. I've come to take you home." Dawn whispered.

To her surprise, the vampire wrinkled his brow. He then balled up his bottom lip and jerkily turned his head back to the wall. He pressed his head back toward the wall as he muttered. Dawn leaned forward to hear when another voice jarringly broke the silence

"Girl! What is taking so long?" the guard's voice once again disrupted the calm of Spike's cell

"Coming!" Dawn called back. "Spike! Hold on! I'll be back." Dawn whispered before she darted over the dishes and rushed to clean the mess. She pulled the rag that was tucked in the ties of her apron out and balled in her hand. She lifted the cheap ceramic bowl and placed it on the tray. When she turned to scoop up the spilled food, she stopped and stared puzzled at strange congealed mass on the floor. There was a faintly red ring of liquid seeping around the edge of the gruel. As she starred at it, she recognized he substance as blood. It occurred to her that someone else in the asylum knew Spike was a vampire.

Hearing the sound in the hallway, Dawn broke out of her stupor. She hurriedly scooped up the gruel in her rag and flung it on the tray. She stood up quickly with the tray and moved over to the door. She looked back briefly at Spike who now had his hands bracing the wall as he stayed in his corner. Taking a breath, she turned to calmly walk back to cart, leaving Spike alone again in his cell.

When he was alone again, Spike curled his fingers and dug his nails into the soft surface of the walls. He was floundering in despair. He had been shocked when he had seen the face. Oh God. He was getting worse. Now the hallucinations were now appearing to him in his cell. They had always been separate. He had been able to cope knowing that this horror would never impinge on that world. Now they had collided, taking with it any hope he still held. He was never going to get better. He had gone mad and he would never leave this place. He closed his eyes as he pressed his forehead against the pliable surface of the wall. It would be better if he just died than prolong this existence, he thought.

In the very early hours of the morning, Dawn sat on her mat under the table staring at the small brown glass bottle along with some twine that she had managed to snag earlier from the pantry. It was used to hold some kind of meat juice from the letters that boldly stood out across the surface. She inwardly chuckled at the irony that she would use it for "meat juice" herself. Listening to the steady breathing and occasional snores, she rose quietly from the mat. Since her pallet was the farthest away from the only heat in the room, she was accustomed to sleeping in her woolen dress. In order to be silent, she had taken off her shoes; the tiles felt cold, slippery and sharp on her threadbare stocking feet as she gingerly tiptoed across the kitchen. She carefully picked her way around the tables and sleeping forms until she made her way to the butcher block in the charcuterie. She pulled a bottle out from under her skirt. She carefully dipped the neck of the bottle in the collection vat that was situated under the blood channel from the butcher's block. Wiping the bottle with a rag, she stuffed a little bit of oil cloth in the neck as a stopper.

She silently made her way back to her pallet. Once there, she tied the twine into a noose around the thick lip of glass that surrounded the bottle's neck. Unbuttoning her high neck dress, she stuffed it even with her breasts, tying the cord around her neck. The voluminous apron would disguise any bulge from the bottle. She made sure there was no evidence to be seen of the cord as she pulled up the collar to fasten it once again. Once that was done, she let herself relax on the paltry pallet she used as a bed. Only then, did she allow her tears to flow from her eyes as she lay on her side, her arm pillowing her head. The lumpy pallet did little in comfort as she used the flat of her hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Spike's state had haunted her for hours after she had returned to the kitchen. She knew that he was not healing well due to lack of blood. She was determined to get him more blood. As soon as she could get him better, the sooner they could leave.

The next morning arrived and with it, the normal rush to produce the meals and distribute them for the asylum inmates and staff. The kitchen staff woke hours before the sun to start the fires and the large kettles on top of them to produce the vast quantities of gruel for the facility. Dawn made numerous trips out to the well pump, toting in the water to fill the kettles. Once that task had been completed, she was dismissed to her location in the scullery. All morning, she had hoped to see who was preparing Spike's meals; however her location in the scullery did not allow her a good view of the food being produced for the research wing on the far side of the kitchen. It was only when she was on one of her trips to resupply the water for heating that she noticed the trays were already prepared. Within the hour, Dawn was called to set up the trays in the cart for the Research wing.

….

Just then, the front door opened as Giles, and Xander appeared in the doorway. They entered the house followed by a very grumpy looking Anya.

"Buffy? Are you alright?" Giles asked as he strode into the kitchen, reaching forward to grasp the slayer's biceps in his hands

"Yeah. Just about as alright as you can get for someone whose little sister not only runs away, but has to go to another dimension to do it!" Buffy grumbled as she shrugged and looked away.

Not believing the act, Giles pulled her into an enveloping hug. Embarrassed at first, Buffy relaxed after a moment and allowed her head to lean on his shoulder. Xander stood at the entrance of the kitchen watching the scene as a yawning Anya moved aimlessly around him.

"Anybody make coffee?" Anya asked as she blearily looked around the kitchen.

"It's over on the counter." Willow responded, tilting her head toward it.

"Thanks." Anya uttered as she blindly staggered as she wandered around the perimeter of the kitchen in her quest for the liquid energy. "Xander, you want some?"

"Sure, Babe." Xander, who had been staring at Buffy, broke his trance when he heard his name, responded breathlessly.

Buffy finally pulled away and gave Giles a grateful smile as she sniffed slightly. He reached up and smoothed the back of her hair.

"Uh, Giles. Willow and I were wondering….well, if you had any ideas…about, you know, that thing?…" Tara haltingly asked as she looked between the floor and Giles.

"You mean, that hand we saw extinguish the plume in the circle?" Giles asked as he took a step away from Buffy toward the two witches.

"Nothing, but!" Willow breathlessly interjected as she placed her mug on the island. She crossed her arms, leaning on the counter with her elbows. "Tara and I never had that happen before. Just kinda wonderin if you knew how to deal with something like that?"

"After witnessing that event, I did not go to sleep when I arrived home. I've been pulling up research on creatures able to act cross dimensionally." Giles stated as he pulled off his glasses. "I believe I know what we're dealing with."

"Great! Now we know what we're dealing with…Let's go get Dawn!" Buffy exclaimed as she moved toward the watcher and the witches.

"I am afraid it is not going to be that simple." The watcher warned as he replaced his glasses on his face.

"Why did I know you were going to say that!" The blonde slayer sighed and shook her head. "Alright, let's have it!"

"The creature I believe we're dealing with is incredibly powerful. It won't be easily defeated."

"So, you're saying my usual routine of going in and kicking butt is not going to work this time?"

"I don't believe that will be successful."

"So, Giles, what should we do?" Willow asked "We have to do something! Dawn's out there."

"Yeah, We got get Dawn back!" Xander announced. "As for rescuing Spike, I'm still kinda on the fence. You know, he's tried to kill us before..vampire and all."

"Xander, you saw the state Spike was in. No one deserves that." Tara spoke up, her voice ringing with determination. "We all owe him for what he did on that tower. Even you, Xander."

"Okay, okay." Xander floundered back with his hands up. "When did you get so direct?'

"Look, guys, knowing Dawn, she won't leave unless we bring Spike back too." Buffy interrupted the pair as she held up a hand. "This action has turned into a rescue one, get one free thingy."

"So, Giles" Willow looked over at the watcher. "It sounds like it's going to be hard defeat this thing and get back Dawn and Spike."

"Yes, most definitely; but there is one good thing." Giles announced. "I have a plan."

….

Dawn and the other maid pushed the cart into the dazzling environment of the Research wing with the morning meal distribution. Dawn could feel the bounce of the chunky bottle against her chest as she leaned forward to throw her weight behind the obstinate cart. She took a quick look down and saw the bilious top of the apron did indeed disguise any movement from the bottle.

The same guard from the previous day accompanied Dawn while she delivered food to the cells. At the fourth stop of the cart, she made sure to stop and read Spike's card. She did not want the guard to become aware of any different reaction on her part. The last thing she needed was a suspicious guard. Turning from the card, Dawn went to retrieve Spike's tray from the cart. As she did so, she heard the door open and the heavy steps of several men walk out of Spike's room behind her. The men were heavily involved in a discussion. One man's voice carried over the others, he was obviously in charge.

"The results of the process are still inconclusive. I believe we should extend the trial for another six weeks minimum." An insufferably self pleased voice announced.

Dawn had just closed her hands around the ends of Spike's tray when she froze. She recognized that voice. Suddenly, all the events from that night on the tower came back to her. The bonds holding her in place as that freakish little man…No, that creature came toward her with a knife, smiling that eerily unsettling grin. She held her breath as she stood by the cart with her back to the men and waited for them to leave. She had just found Spike. She could not allow herself to be caught. Spike was depending on her! I just have to wait my time, she thought. And this time, it will be your turn to be surprised, Doc!


	16. Chapter 16

Render the Extra Mile

By Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…

Chapter 16

At Giles' announcement, a flurry of questions sprang up as everyone spoke at once in the kitchen.

"What kind of plan?"

"Do you know what that thing was?"

"Does it have Dawn? Is she in danger?'

"That claw looked kinda tough and scary. How are we going to fight it?"

"What are we waiting for?"

Taking his arm from around Buffy's shoulder, Giles held up his hands to quiet the melee of questions buzzing around him.

"Alright, everyone, settle down. First of all, I believe I know what we're dealing with." Giles announced with portent to the vista of anxious faces around the kitchen island.

"What? How do you know what it was? I mean, all we saw was that claw looking thing." Willow asked as she cocked her head to the side. "How could you tell anything from that?"

"When I returned to my apartment, I contacted an old colleague at the Council whose specialty was demonology. From what I told him of our experience, he said that it was possibly one of three trans-dimensional demons." Giles paused to take a breath as everyone stared at him with rapt attention. He held up his finger to count off the types of demons. "The first was a Jipheikliar which normally travels between dimensions. However, they are incredibly allergic to oxygen based atmospheres and would never willingly expose any part of themselves to it. The second is the Halphenshrix. They are known to prefer to stay incorporeal, so it would be unlikely they were responsible for the effect we witnessed last night. That leaves our leading contender: the Vilcarthes demon." Giles stopped for a moment to look at the young faces who were giving him rapt attention before continuing.

"So, tell us about bachelor number three?" Xander said with a talk show host voice as he smirked at Anya. The corner of Anya's mouth pulled up into a lopsided smile that she hid behind her cup of coffee.

Not in any mood for joking, Buffy let out a disappointed breath of air at the two with a sour expression before turning her head back to Giles. Tara raised a warning eyebrow at Xander as she saw Buffy's reaction and then she too turned her head back to Giles.

"According to my contact, it is particularly attracted to energy emitted by high emotions such as grief or despair. Something, which Spike was emitting in rather auspicious quantities." Giles stated as he pulled off his glasses. "I believe a Vilcarthes demon has snatched Spike right out of our dimension."

"A Vilcarthes….of course. I heard about them back when I was a vengeance demon. I never came across one myself, but I heard about them. They're very unsavory, you know, like the people who double dip their chip in the onion dip at parties …Ick!" Anya continued to prattle despite the confused faces surrounding her. "I heard tell that it used to be that they were always hanging around, looking for table scraps of suffering from one of our more potent spells. The problems started to happen when they got grabby."

"How did you…I mean, how did the vengeance demons deal with them?" the watcher queried the ex-demon.

"Well, first of all, you don't attract them. If they do show up, don't feed them. They're worst than stray cats. D'Hoffryn always made us cast a dampening spell so they wouldn't smell the vengeance and pop up unannounced." Anya responded, nodding her head.

"What happened if they did show up?" Tara asked as she widened her eyes in dread.

"First of all, let me say, that it never happened to me. I was always exceedingly professional; but there was this one vengeance demon that forgot to cast the dampening spell about the time the Hundred Years war was winding up. A Vilcarthes demon showed up just as her vengeance spell was really revving up and snatched the object of the spell right out of our dimension. The claimant wanted to see her vengeance being wrought, but the recipient just disappeared. It was terribly messy! All the higher ups got involved. D'Hoffryn sent out locator spells to try to pull the poor sap back, but nothing ever came of it. The team finally had to write off as a loss. Talk about the paperwork…there were special late night meetings...all the vengeance demons had to go through a tedious recertification program. It was endless!" Anya added, with a shake of her head. "Just a warning, if you run into D'Hoffryn, don't mention it. It still upsets him."

"Uh, okay." Willow's face wrinkled in thought briefly before she asked. "So, if the Vilcarthes demon can just snatch someone from another dimension, why don't the victims fight back by cheering up and escaping?

"According to my associate, it seems that the Vilcarthes have discovered a dimension where they can bend matter to their will. They build a construct based upon their prey's most ingrained fears to reinforce the negative emotions." Giles stated and then replaced his glasses on his face. "The victims are so convinced of their situation; they never dispute the circumstances they find themselves in, allowing the Vilcarthes to feed at leisure."

"Anyone who doesn't have a problem with Spike suffering, raise your hand!" Xander crowed as his own hand rocketed up. Seeing no one else held up a hand, Xander sheepishly brought his hand down.

"Then…uh... how did Spike manage to reappear in our dimension?" Tara asked hesitantly. "Is it because he's a vampire?"

"No, I don't think so. That's the unusual thing. A Vilcarthes would never take an interest in a vampire. They don't emit the full spectrum of emotional depth to even make a blip on their meter. It's puzzling." The watcher shook his head confoundedly. "A Vilcarthes should have never noticed Spike."

"What I want to know is that if this demon thing already has Spike, what was with all those fireworks last night? He already had him so why make such a fuss?" Willow questioned as she peered over at the watcher.

"It must have perceived our ceremony as some type of threat to its possession of Spike. It obviously took exception to our locating Spike." Giles looked thoughtful at the question.

"Okay, so it does not like sharing its toys." Buffy interjected. "Why did it act so cranky about our little sneak a peek?"

"The Vilcarthes would normally isolate their prey from outside influences that may decrease the high emotional output or even aid in the victim to increase positive thought. It may have felt a threat from us, and in turn, became aggressive toward us." The older man responded.

"I wouldn't call that aggressive. I would say that was more like knocking us into next week kind of action." Xander responded, rolling his eyes.

"Giles, why would it be so threatened by us?" Tara asked, tilting her head as she looked at the watcher.

"It normally wouldn't be. There is very limited documentation on the Vilcarthes in the council records. It is believed that once they find a source, they are increasingly territorial against any threat that would remove them from their control." The watcher shrugged and added. "It would be totally within their nature to reach into our world to eradicate any threat to their possession of that source."

"Is this Villanova thingy dangerous? Will it hurt Dawn?" Buffy implored.

"The demon will take no interest in her as long as she doesn't threaten its source….oh." Anya prattled until she remembered just who Dawn went to rescue. Turning quickly to Giles, she brightly asked. "Sooo, Giles, what's the big rescue plan?"

…

Dawn stood next to the cart, resting Spike's tray against the corner, careful to keep her back to the three men standing just to the side of the entrance to Spike's cell. She griped the handles of Spike's tray hard until her knuckles turned white. The three men in the white coats were intensely preoccupied with their discussion of their observations. Dawn could hear Doc dispel and pick over what his assistants were offering him with impunity. Tucking her chin down, Dawn hazarded a glance over her shoulder. She saw that Doc's body was slightly turned away and partially blocking the entrance to Spike's cell. She was going to have to get by him to get to Spike.

Turing her head back to the cart, she took a stilted breath to clear her anxiety. After locating Spike, she was not about to be put off by this loathsome little man or whatever he was again. If she was careful enough, she could slide into the cell without him noticing. Gritting her teeth behind her closed lips, she picked up the tray again. Keeping her head down, she slowly side stepped to Spike's door trying to avoid any notice of the three men standing there.

"Guard!" One of Doc's assistants called out once she was a few feet away from the cart.

Dawn froze in place as the guard who accompanied her on the food distribution was called over. She waited for a moment, holding her breath. Then not hearing anything being addressed toward her, she began to approach Spike's cell once again. She came up silently behind Doc to slide behind him. She could smell the strong scent of sandalwood accompanied by the dusky smell of mink oil shoe polish that seemed to emanate from him. It turned her stomach slightly to think of Doc enjoying such luxuries while Spike was cowering in the corner of the yonder cell.

Just as she was about to pass him, Doc took a step back blocking her route. Dawn took a step back and waited. Sure enough, Doc took a step forward the next moment and Dawn moved quickly to pass him and enter Spike's cell. She just managed to elude Doc's back as she hurriedly squeezed between him and the door.

Once she was inside the cell, her eyes flew immediately over to Spike in the corner. Spike was still huddled in the same corner where she had seen him before. Quickly depositing the new tray on the ledge, she looked quickly back out the doorway entrance. From this angle, she could just see the fine cool grey material covering Doc's back. It seemed the physcians were still thoroughly engrossed in discussing something with the guard.

Taking her opportunity, Dawn moved quickly on her toes over to where Spike was. She crouched down beside him.

"Spike!" She whispered as she searched his profile for any sign of a reaction. "I don't have much time. Are you alright?"

Spike did not visibly react to the sound of her voice, but continued to keep still. His head staring at the wall in front of him.

Looking over her shoulder at the doorway, her hand went to her collar and undid the top two buttons. She grabbed the twine that lay around her collar bone and pulled it over her head. She gathered the loop of twine in front of her face and held her collar open with the other. She began to quickly pull the loop upwards, disengaging the small bottle out of its hiding place. With a strong tug, the bottle managed to extricate itself from the small tight opening where Dawn had undone the buttons. It popped out of her dress top and hung swaying on the twine. She quickly grabbed the bottle, pulled out the oil cloth from the neck.

"I'm sorry. I don't have time to be gentle about this." Dawn warned as a determined look settled in her eyes.

She grabbed Spike chin roughly, turning his head toward her. His face was slack and nothing registered behind his eyes as she looked at his face. If she had allowed herself the luxury of emotion at the present time, it would have upset her; but she was on a mission now. She was fully intent on getting this blood into Spike. Keeping a firm grip on Spike's chin, she managed to pull his chin forward which opened his mouth. She inserted the small neck of the bottle inside his lower teeth. She poured a good amount inside his mouth. Then pushed his chin up and willed him to swallow it. She heard movement outside the doorway. She grabbed the piece of oilcloth and shoved it back into the bottle.

"Spike, listen to me. This is blood. I am going to leave it here. Drink it when you're alone." She held up the bottle in front of his face and then made a small hole in the straw against the wall. She placed the bottle in the hole and covered it with straw. "Remember!" She said, pointing at the spot as she stood up.

Spinning around, she had only taken a few steps into the middle of the room, when the guard appeared at the doorway. He stood there with an indignant scowl on his face that told her she had better move quickly.

"Girl, what is taking you so long?" He asked the irritation clear in his voice.

"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to check to see if I had missed any of the food I spilled yesterday." Dawn spouted as she spun away, buttoning the collar of her dress. She quickened her step to pick up the previous meal's tray and moved toward the doorway. "I'm coming!"

As soon as Dawn was outside in the hallway, she turned with Spike's old tray in her hands watching the guard turn the key in the door of Spike's cell. She prayed that she had managed to pierce the walls of his stupor that Spike had retreated behind. She had not been able to give him much blood. She hoped the blood she had given him would make him aware enough to drink the rest of the bottle. When she returned later that day, she would find out for sure.

…..

Spike had stayed still, not moving after Doc and his staff had left the room. This time, they had not given him the shot that always preceded the tortuous daily sessions. He heard the murmur of their voices as they began talking about him directly in front of him and then made their way outside the doorway as they discussed his prognosis.

They had not been successful curing him. Again, another failure had been added to the large file they kept on him. It seemed the lead doctor wanted to put him through another six week trial of their horrible new therapy. Spike knew that he would indeed lose his grip on sanity if he had to endure another allotment of sessions. They had hoped to rid him of his obsession of being a vampire. They said he had developed an unhealthy diversion of pretending to be a vampire to deal with his mother's death. He couldn't even deal with that like a man. Everyone knew that vampires don't exist. He was really the same silly sappy mama's boy as he had been when he woke up the morning of Cecily's part. The only exception was that his mind had finally buckled. He was now a well established inmate of the Middlesex asylum with no friends, family or prospects. It would be better if they just walled him up in the cell. He was never going to leave this place.

He was soundly wrapped in the despair of his thoughts when he became slightly aware of someone's hand turning his head. He really didn't care. What does a madman have to complain about? There was a buzz of some words being said as he felt the grate of hard glass across his bottom incisors. A heady liquid was poured just inside his teeth, pooling under his tongue like a thick molasses. The hand pushed up on his chin, closing his mouth. The dark intoxicating fluid flowed across the base of his mouth, bringing life to the surface it touched. The roof of his mouth responded by becoming fuller, succulent and sleekly smooth. His parched tongue thickened, became pliant and undulated in rapture. Saliva came flooding up from under his tongue, moistening his mouth as the blood moved to the back of his mouth, igniting old instincts as he involuntarily swallowed it.

As he sat there, an internal voice jumped to life as it recognized the substance and sang at their reunion. "BLOOD!"


	17. Chapter 17

Render the Extra Mile

By Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. They do not belong to me.

…

Chapter 17

Spike closed his eyes as he felt the effect of blood in him like an electric current running through his body. With that one mere mouthful, the blood had reawakened every cell it came in contact with; and with it, the vampire within him. The demon whom the desolate William Pratt had had spent so much time and energy denying its existence during his stay at this institute now came surging forth. From his huddled position on the straw, the long suppressed demon knocked aside whatever mental restraints that had been holding him. The ridged brow, and the sharp razor fangs suddenly sprouted on the handsome face and the yellow eyes opened to the room. The vampire did not move from his position on the straw as it took in the room around him. Its upper lip was slightly snarled as it softly growled a warning to those in the immediate area.

The sound of Spike's harsh breathing bounced off the gummy white walls as he eyes traveled furtively around him. He tilted his head as he sensed something. He lifted his jaw, his nose scenting the air. In the next instant, he was kneeling in the straw, furiously pulling away the pad of broken bits to reveal a small brown bottle. He quickly grabbed the bottle, removing the stopper and tossing it away. He upended the bottle into his greedy mouth, sucking every last drop to abate the insatiable hunger that lay inside him. When the bottle had been drained, the vampire lowered it and looked at it curiously. There was something about it, a scent besides the blood. It was familiar. There was something about it that reminded the demon of a place, a place where he had been.

Suddenly his mind was filled with flashes of places and strangely familiar faces. Memories of confidently prowling in the night, the hot wet thrill of the hunt and the elation brought by sweet victory over his victims enveloped him. He witnessed a myriad of memories of his victims as they succumbed to him, each offering up their life essence to him. He remembered a dark haired woman vampire, who was beautiful in her fragility. He pondered for a moment who she was before his mind was filled with the rush of exciting battles between him and extraordinarily strong young women fighters. They, too, were unable to resist him. He smiled at the feelings that arose in him, the tips of his fangs pressing into his lower lip. More recent memories filled his mind, a pretty young blonde woman who fascinated him, but who barely attempted to keep the irritation off her face as she addressed him. With her, stood a young girl with long honey brown hair who looked at him with warmth in her eyes. That was one face that lingered in his mind. It was a youthful innocent face that smiled at him with the rare qualities of adoration and trust. He drew in another deep sniff to absorb the scent again to clarify the memory. With that action, the flash of a terrible night on a tower filled his mind. In the next instant, the yellow eyes faded away as they were replaced by startled blue eyes. The realization hit him that there was actual proof of her existence. He looked up from the dark molasses colored bottle being cradled in his hand and uttered six simple words.

"Till the end of the world."

…..

The din created by normal operations of the institution's kitchen burst into the corridor as the door opened to allow the return of the cart. Dawn had become accustomed to the sheer level of chaos as she and her partner navigated the cumbersome cart past the heavy door to the kitchen. Upon opening the door, the sound of the kitchen's daily activity greeted the pair, the clashing of pans as they banged together as they were pulled down from the racks, the sound of knife blades hitting the heavy wooden chopping block as it cut through meat or vegetable matter, the clicking of spoons as they circulated soup around the edge of pots. In the midst of it all were the loud harsh voices of the cook and kitchen maids as they called out instructions or demands to one another. Unable to put aside her thoughts about Spike and Doc, Dawn automatically went about her routine to restock the hot water supply which had gotten dangerously low. After stowing the cart, she began to make her way back to her station at the scullery to pick up a bucket to take to the well pump. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Spike and Doc. She couldn't wait to see Spike again to see what benefit the secreted blood had done for him. In other moments, she was brimming with thoughts of revenge against Doc, every slight injury or affront she could think of that could be twisted into something worse. She was wrapped up with the thoughts in her mind when she was suddenly halted by one of the head cook's main assistants. The starkly thin middle aged woman with a lined brow held up her rawboned hand to stop. Dawn jerked to a stop as all thoughts fell from her mind in surprise at the variance from her daily routine.

"Scullery, Pansy has returned. She will be resuming duties again. You will no longer be needed for the tray distribution. You will remain in the kitchen and continue with your assigned tasks in the scullery." The woman coldly informed her and then turned away before Dawn could react.

Dawn stood stunned for a moment as the information penetrated her skull. How? What? It couldn't be, she thought. Now that she had found Spike…how was she supposed to get Spike out of here if she was stuck in the kitchen all day? No! She wouldn't allow any thing as minor as a kitchen bureaucracy stand in her way! Now, what to do to make sure that she remained on tray distribution duty, she thought as her eyes looked around the kitchen.

….

"I estimate the best plan is to go in to the construct, creating little or no notice. From what we've gleaned from Spike's conversation with Tara, I believe that the construct is set amongst a Victorian insane asylum." Giles informed the Scoobies

"That doesn't sound very pleasant. If I was going to create a construct, it would be more like Fort Knox or even better, inside the vault at Tiffany's." Anya interjected. She leaned over to Xander and confided. "The price of gold is going down; but diamonds are forever. And they are really sparkly."

"Riiiight." Xander responded with a disconcerted look at his girlfriend.

"Being that I possess the most knowledge about Victorian England, I believe that I should lead the team." Giles continued

"Team?" Buffy repeated, stunned.

"Yes, it will take a number of us to accomplish a rescue of Dawn and possibly Spike." Giles responded.

"Wha…What do you mean? P..Possibly Spike?" Tara's voice cut through the room, betraying her shock at the callousness of Spike's dismissal. "We have to rescue him too. You saw what shape he was in. It would be to…too cruel to leave him there."

"I am not so sure we'll be able to achieve that. We'll be in the demon's realm. It is obvious that it will not let Spike go easily." Giles stated, as he pulled off his glasses. "If a choice has to be made, I believe that Dawn's rescue will be paramount."

"So, we're just going to leave him there! That isn't right." Willow exclaimed, also appalled at the attitude toward Spike. She breathlessly added her justification. "I mean, I know he's planned to kill us several times, but for the past year, he's been helping out a lot. He did kill that monster that broke in while we finishing that spell to defeat Adam. Okay, it was so we wouldn't stake him; but still points have to be given."

"Listen, Willow, we all know that he only helped us out because he had that ridiculous obsession with Buffy. He is just lucky that he has that chip shoved into his brain or the Buffster would have staked him long ago." Xander bitingly informed the group, holding up a hand. "Sure, Dawn likes him for some perverse reason, but I…"

"Enough already with the waffling about rescuing Spike! Everyone, remember, our goal is to rescue Dawn!" Buffy's strained voice broke in, cutting off Xander. "If I have to rescue Spike, so be it. You forget he's the reason that Dawn went to that dimension. My sister can be pretty hard headed, when she wants something. If Spike doesn't come along, she won't come easily. I can already tell you that we are going to need her cooperation. So, Giles, what's next?"

"We will need to assemble a team and a strategy to travel to the demon's construct, achieve the rescue and return to our dimension." Giles apprised the young people staring at him. "I, of course, will lead the team."

"Wait a minute, Giles. Not to stomp on your tea and crumpets; but Buffy is the slayer." Willow interrupted as she looked back between Buffy and Giles. "Shouldn't she lead the team?"

"Perhaps at another time, that might have been a viable reason, but since the object of this rescue is Dawn. Buffy is too vulnerable to her emotions to marshal an orchestrated operation." Giles responded as he replaced his glasses back on his face. "I believe that it will take considerably more resources than just staking a few vampires."

"Hey! Don't be bashing the slayingI It happens to take grace, strategy and fine honed ass kicking skills." Buffy muttered as she crossed her arms in front of her. She then glanced over at Giles with her lower lip stuck out. "At least, that's what you told me."

"Indeed, but how is your expertise on the Victorian period?" Giles inquired of the slayer as a skeptical look crossed his face.

"What's to know?" Buffy shrugged as she replied. "It was old fashioned, people wore funny clothes and there was that King Victorian person."

"At another time, I would stand in awe of your grasp of that pivotal era." Giles stated as he turned away with a pained sigh.

"Um, Giles. If it's a Victorian insane asylum…how is Dawn fitting in?" Willow hesitantly asked, as her brow creased with worry. "You know, her being the all American teenager. She's probably wasting away for lack of phone service."

"Knowing Buffy's sister, I have no idea. She is a particularly driven young woman with unsuspected talents. I wouldn't be surprised what she is up to."

…

Back at the scullery, Dawn was picking at some left on leavings on a bake pan as she thought about her situation. Pansy had returned to the kitchen that afternoon with her forearm wrapped in a sizeable bandage. Although she had nothing against the injured woman in particular, Dawn was not about to let this woman's presence bar her from her goal of rescuing Spike. She mulled the situation over in her mind, and suddenly it came to her as she stood at the sink. All she needed was a distraction to happen in the kitchen, so she could put her plan into action.

The one good thing about being in the kitchen so long, Dawn was well aware of which personalities clashed among the kitchen workers. Over by the large fireplace, it was apparent that two large ill-tempered women who worked in the same area could not abide each other. The tense atmosphere around the two made everyone in the kitchen quite aware of the tenuous peace that existed between them. The rest of the kitchen staff anxiously tiptoed around the women, so not to inflame the situation. An uneasy truce existed between the two large women who worked in such tight quarters. The women were intentionally kept apart at two separate tables to maintain harmony in the kitchen. A harmony that was going to be short lived at best, if Dawn had anything to do with it. An evil grin pulled at Dawn's mouth as she thought of plan.

Throughout the day, as Dawn traversed the kitchen carrying pails of water to the fireplace, she watched two large imposing looking women that worked at separate tables. The two worked aside each other in an uneasy truce. These two women held dominance over their worktables like two small kingdoms. Each implement was considered spoils of war by its pompous emperor. As she brought back an empty bucket, she would slyly pick up a implement from one table and stealthily transfer it to the other. This went on for several trips, before she heard a storm brewing from the area of two tables. One woman spotted her missing spoon on the other woman's table. The resulting uproar that ensued disrupted the entire kitchen. The activity of the entire kitchen halted as everyone froze to watch the battle of the two burly women. The screeching sound on of tables bounced off the walls as they were pushed back as the women wrestled. The head cook and her staff marched by a secretly thrilled Dawn as they charged over to deal with the women. Dawn's eyes traveled back and forth watching for anyone who might notice her as she backed up to where the research wing trays were kept. Once she made it over there, she huddled down and switched the name cards on the trays that were Pansy's. Standing up quickly, she moved back away from the cart to her original position, confident that no one had noticed her ploy.

Once the skirmish had been settled, the head cook turned around to address the kitchen. The two women combatants were eventually separated and were slowly returning back to their tables, trading surly looks at one another.

"Everyone back to work!" The stern looking authoritative woman commanded the group as she stood between the two behemoths.

Dawn returned back to the scullery as the pairs of women lined up to push the dinner carts out into the institute. She could not stop the feeling of resentment that rose in her as she watched the women disappear with the carts out the door. She desperately wanted to see Spike, but that was not going to happen tonight, but that should change by tomorrow. With a small interior smile of satisfaction, Dawn watched Pansy and her partner push the cart out the door. If the doctors were as adamant about their patients getting the correct trays as she had been told, Dawn knew that she would be on cart duty the next morning.

…..

The day had passed slowly for Spike in his cell. For once, the doctors had not subjected him to the horrific treatments that day as they discussed the next step. The blood had improved him physically, but the scent of someone from Sunnydale had down wonders for him psychologically. He sat with his back against the wall, holding the brown bottle in his hand as time wore on. He kept the bottle low between him and the wall, so he could quickly bury it in the straw if anyone came into the cell. His thumb brushed over the raised letters in the glass. The pattern under the surface of his thumb felt reminiscent to prayer beads as he cradled the hope inside him.

The sound of the door being pulled back broke him out of his trance. He turned his head to see the face he longed to see. It was not her. It was a grubby dark haired woman with the dinner tray. It wasn't Dawn. How could he even think of her being here, he asked himself. He quickly pulled his eyes away from her and stared at the wall as the disappointment collided with the confusion inside him. He felt the loss of hope physically as the negative thoughts began swirling in his mind. The thought that he was having delusions again twisted his gut as he sat there. He was tempted to succumb to the despair again. There was one thing that anchored the hope in him.

"How?" He whispered softly as he looked down at the object in his hand. Where had this bottle come from?


End file.
